Winemaking and living in hot climates?

[Cody G]

I've been reading about winemaking for a while and have decided I'd like to give it a try. I live in a very hot area of the country -- South Texas. It is hot for at least 9 months of the year hear. In all reality, I am not going to have the "ideal" fermentation temperature of 68-74 degrees for these nine months of the year. I keep the AC on about 78 degrees during the hot months of the year -- and turned up to 85 degrees while I'm out of the house during the day. Turning it down any more gets REALLY expensive.

Any thoughts? If it's going to pose really major problems, then I may need to re-think all of this.

As far as storage of the wine, it looks like some type of wine cooler is my only option.

Those of you more experienced than I, I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks ~ Cody

 

[Sacalait]

As you can see I live in So. La. so we're dealing with some of the same problems. I keep my house at 75F in the summer and it has worked OK for me. If you let the temp. get to 85F during the day that isn't good and the fluctuating temps. are also not good. You could plan your wine making for the 3 months that are more desirable and then use a cooler for the bottled wine. Try digging down about 3' and check the temp. there. You may be able to store it in the ground (usually cooler) if the temps. permit.

 

[Adolphus79]

Have you considered building a fermentation chest?

Get yourself an old fridge or chest freezer, and then pick up a temperature controller from your local homebrew shop. You can then set the fridge/freezer for whatever temp you want.

Something like this... http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_40_366&products_id=10122

 

[Cody G]

Sacalait --

Thanks for the reply. Higher utility bills may be in my future! :-(

 

[Cody G]

Mike,

I didn't even know such things existed. I will definitely have to look into it. Thanks,
Cody