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I want something I can set and forget for a couple weeks at a time. There may be my big 32 gallon brute in there, or a couple 20-gallons, a single 7-gal bucket, or some carboys.

Yep, whether window AC or a fridge, it would need to have the hot side outside the box. There is a small cubby where I could have the back side of a small mini fridge or similar sticking out, but not big enough for my window ac (and window ac way louder). A portable AC might be a compromise...

I've built a small insulated box below a countertop in my garage. It's about 4'x2'x3' Looking for a way to keep it cool in summer. I don't often need cooling during wine fermentation time as it's usually not so hot by harvest time, but it does happen sometimes. I also make beer year round so...

Having too much wine is a constant issue for us. We wife and I don't drink much wine ourselves, maybe a bottle a month. I make at least 100 bottles a year, usually more like 200-300. We give a lot away, but still the cellar is getting pretty tight. Now that's not all from our vines, my wife's...

This week I finally got around to building a dedicated area for homebrewing, and also for fermenting wine. The bottom of the cabinet is a climate controlled box (so far just heat) to control fermentation temps. I can fit in my 32 gallon brute and two 50L kegs, or the 32 and a 20 gallon brute. Or...

Welcome aboard. I'm all those things to :) we have 30+ Muscat vines and a few Riesling. These are just in our back yard, some in rows in the garden, others grow up a trellis and over our patio. Also homebrew, and am in a similar climate just a couple hours East of you.

It's pretty good, but I make it for a relative and she likes it super sweet. So we either back sweeten or stop fermentation, aiming for about 1.020 final gravity. Dornfelder is really dark, so even just an hour of skin time gives it a nice red colour.

Looks good, I did a similar amount of Dornfelder this year again as a Rose. Crushed and pressed as quickly as I could on my own, probably an hour of skin contact time.

We moved one of my daughters into the 'spare' bedroom in the basement last month. It has no windows though as it's behind the porch/cellar. She (tween) loves this at its pitch black in there but we didn't like it from a safety standpoint. So last week we had an egress window cut into the house...

We dry some stuff to, some tomatoes and hot peppers, freeze some more. But with three young kids, having stuff in ready to use form is very nice.

Yea it happens. Several of my relatives are grape growers here in Niagara, and they often find people in their vines near a roadway picking whatever they want. That large a haul is not common, but happens. Then there is me, out picking a couple hundred pounds each year, but with permission :)

There was a big spike in demand for these this year. My wife and I can hundreds of jars of stuff every year, but had a hard time finding jars and lids in the latter half of the summer. Bernardin and Golden Harvest are the two most common brands in our area, sometimes see Ball. Amazon way more...

I got this message as I was filling the kegs :) I first used oxyclean free, let soak overnight with hot water. I did boil some 50/50 vinegar/water yesterday, rinsed, repeated with alcohol (50/50 vodka/water), just 1L or so each time. Rinsed and then starsan. I just wanted to make sure the...

Ours like to eat our grapes too, we have 30+ vines in the backyard. If she can reach them, she will. I've taken to spraying her with the hose if I see her going for them, which seems to have helped a lot. She also looks for any skins I miss after cleaning up. So far she's never gotten sick but...

I have about 110L of Riesling in primary fermentation right now, thinking ahead to secondary. I have around 15 carboys but they are all full of other wine. I do have two 50L beer kegs available. One is unmodified, so that's pretty simple. The other one has had some drain ports and a 1-in port...

Yes I do have 5 micron and 1 micron filters as well. I will use one of those first.

So far so good. when the wine got down to about 1.024, I moved it into the fridge, knowing it would take a couple of hours to cool down. It's been in there for about 2 weeks, holding at 1.020. My 0.35 micron filters are here, so once this all settles out I'll run it through those. I'll still...

Thanks again all. I do always do pectic enzyme at start of fermentation. Agreed that this method is more work, but experimenting is fun :)

Thanks guys, I should have been more clear, it would be in carboys for the longer term cold crash, not the brute. The brute would only be for primary fermentation. Actually, as it turns out, I'm using some fermenting buckets, and my 16 gallon stainless Brew kettle. That fit more nicely in my...

Having said that, I now find myself with 350lbs of Dornfelder grapes in my back yard, and an offer for a similar amount of free Riesling grapes to be dropped off. Will need to run this by the boss to see what she says.