Advice for Wine Making Room

[LittleBearGameFarm]

Good Morning - I was wondering if anyone had any advice regarding what they like in their wine making rooms or if there was anything they would do different. I will have a couple weeks off over the holidays and am going to build a room in the basement. The area is about 8'x8' and is currently a bar area that we never use for anything other than storage. We have a finished basement with in floor heat and I would say temps down there are typically maintained at 65F (winter) and warmer in the summer. This will be a place mainly to make the wine and have carboy storage. I plan on putting a sink in and am thinking about running an exhaust van in there as well. Is the exhaust needed? Any other ideas that will make everything more efficient/tidy? Thanks for any info!

 

[Kraffty]

Since you need it to fit your specific needs best I'd suggest listing the biggest inconvenient things you deal with where ever you make your wine now and incorporate fixes to those problems first. Overhead shelves or storage that don't take away from your footprint is good. You can also build heights to your preference of either standing or sitting when you're working. Make all shelves, counters etc. as sturdy as possible.
Mike

 

[Thig]

Having just finished mine this year I can mention a few things.

You said you were adding a sink. That was the best thing I did. I put in a plastic utility tub sink so if I bump the carboy against it it will not break, be sure to get a high enough (gooseneck) faucet that you can get a 6 gallon carboy under it while the carboy is standing up.

You can never have too much work counter space with receptacles close by for the pumps, heat belts, etc.

You need good lighting directly over the work table.

Plenty of shelves, some capable of holding a case of empty bottles.

A small refrigerator for keeping the various ingredients and yeast.

Consider putting a couple of hooks in the ceiling over the sink and work table (some wines you will want to let the mesh bag drain over the secondary).

Peg board over the sink and work table to hang various stuff on like your racking tubes and hoses.

Small microwave, great for heating up a little wine when back sweetening and for Sparkoloid.

And of course some kind of racks strong enough to hold the full carboys.

I personally think the exhaust fan would be a waste of time and money.

 

[jamesngalveston]

I couldnt have a wine room without tv and music..i would drop a 42 inch tv, and a small surround sound system.....othen then that

everything thig said.....

 

[JohnT]

Some of these suggestions might no be "Do-able", but here goes..

1) a dry well so you can just hose things down.
2) hot and cold running spigots.
3) I could not agree more on the TV and/or sound system.
4) Lots of light.
5) lots of outlets,
6) lots of counter space (you would be surprised on how you can never have enough)
7) lots of shelves for storing all your stuff. Peg board is also nice for hanging up hoses, etc.

 

[ibglowin]

Do you plan on storing wine down their for long periods of time? If so I would let the temps drop to 55-60. Much better for the wine. If you need heat, add a brew belt on heating pad and throw on a beach towel for insulation.

 

[Winenoob66]

lol man yall sure wanting a lot for an 8' x 8' room

 

[Putterrr]

i was bored...

 

[JohnT]

Looks great, but I would add another row of shelves above the sink. You simply can not have enough shelves.

 

[kevinlfifer]

If you can score a deep well restaurant sink where the is attached "counter" that drain directly to the sink. That is on my wish list.

 

[Wade E]

Personally with those drawings I would lose the side shelves and opt for as much counter space as possible! Once you start testing acids with a stand and have an AllInOne and stuff like that you will be amazed at how quickly you lose space! Tunes are a sure thing, I can live without the tv, its just a distraction IMO. A little roll around stand comes in very handy also for a laptop or for the AllInOne you will get or some kind of pump for racking and filtering and bottling.

 

[moesagoodboy]

Make your main work table out of laminate 36 inches deep. This way you can easily slide your carboys around ( two deep) and still have room to work in front of them. The vinyl double sink is a great suggestion.

 

[Putterrr]

Lets not forget that people have walk in closets bigger than 8 by 8

cheers

 

[jamesngalveston]

i think it looks great....i would make sure i had a xtra high goose neck faucet with a spray wand, a draining rack for bottles /carboys.
looks very good...

 

[DaveL]

Why are you limited to 8x8?

 

[LittleBearGameFarm]

Thanks for the input guys! Awesome drawing Putterrr!

Here is a little update, the reason I am limited to an 8x8 is because I don't want to encroach into the living room too much. I will be going a little bigger than that with the wine racks but the existing bar area was about 8x8.

This photo shows where I am currently making wine. It is the bathroom out in our garage (we lived in garage while we built the house). It is also 8x8 but just very cluttered.

 

[LittleBearGameFarm]

These pics show the existing bar area/living room. The master bedroom is off the end and our daughter's bedroom is off the side. You can see that the bigger I made this room, the more it would cut into the living room and going too far would not look right as you come down the stairs.

 

[JohnT]

Hmmmm,

Ok,

New Advice,

Why not combine the living room and wine making area?

Think about it... You have one big room with one area dedicated to winemaking and another area dedicated to DRINKING WINE. Looks like you were planning on making the wine room look nice anyway, so why not make it part of the living room?

 

[LittleBearGameFarm]

Had a week or so over break and got started on it. Gutted out the whole area and started painting. I decided to replace all of the flooring and then decided to match the flooring into the master bedroom as well, so the project grew. If I had stayed with the original plan, the project would have only been about $500 or less but the flooring was about $1200 for both rooms.

 

[LittleBearGameFarm]

As you can see, I cut out the drywall where the wine racks will butt up to the wall, hoping that it will bring the temp down inside there. I will be installing a 6' patio door (that I got for $25) and the walls will be insulated. I might need to rig something up like I have in my incubators to get the humidity up in there. The back side of the wine racks will have two insulated closets. Wall side closet I am hoping to be able to maintain at cooler temps and one warmer one. Agree with having to get a gooseneck faucet and would like one with the wand that pulls out. I am thinking 18" counters just because there would only be about 4' from the closet door to the edge of the counter. There is built in shelves currently above where the counter is but they are only a 2x6 deep. Took the suggestion for plenty of light and found a track light on sale for $50 and it has 5 bulbs, plenty for a 9' x 5' work area. I still need to figure out the sink and how to build sloped shelves for wine storage. One of the panels of the patio door will be fixed. I've been ripping apart old pallets from work, running them through the planer, and varnishing them. That is what is up on the walls.

The reason I had asked about exhaust is because I don't want the whole house the smell like a fermentation. So, I think I still may do the primary ferment out in the garage, for now anyway.

Any questions/suggestions?

Thanks