How important is temperature control after the wine has been bottled? Living in Texas I do not have a cellar, not even a storm cellar. Also do not have an empty room in the house that I can convert to wine storage. What I do have is a building that can be fixed up for storing wine. A/C 24 hrs a day is out of the question. What are others in the south doing about this?
Temp control
- Thread starter Jerry1
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Wine will age better with cooler temps. That is without question. If you can't move your wine to a smaller temperature controlled room with a window AC or similar then all your left with is finding the coolest most temp stable location in the house and let it ride. Keep it as cool as possible, away from as much light as possible and away from as much vibration as possible. Try and insulate from the heat as much as possible.
At 78 degrees (room temp in the Summer time in most Texas homes) you should get at least 2 years. If you keep it cooler say 68 degrees Summer time temp you'll more than likely get at least double that. YMMV as they say as everyones palette is different.
At 78 degrees (room temp in the Summer time in most Texas homes) you should get at least 2 years. If you keep it cooler say 68 degrees Summer time temp you'll more than likely get at least double that. YMMV as they say as everyones palette is different.
Wayne1
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I used to live in Dallas - now in Florida so still hot. I have used closets - so out of light and basically room temp. I got one of those giant wine storage cabinets (holds hundreds of bottles) cheap on CL and had it in my garage. When the temps were in the 70s, it could hold the wine at 55 degrees - but once the TX heat hit, it was overwhelmed. It was designed for indoors use but is too big for the house. I've thought about trying to rig up some way to connect it to a more powerful refrigerant system so it could work in the garage.
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If its one of those thermoelectric cooling units (no moving parts or compressor) yea, they can't overcome that wide a temperature gradient.
North Texas. I store minein a downstairs closet in the center of the house. Stays around 78 in summer with minimal fluctuation. I have no choice. Since only that temp range for half the year I am banking on longer than 2 years. Hopfully 3-4 years in which time I fully expect to finish off a batch. Time will tell.
Scotty, I have a small building built like you describe. That thing has so much insulation I've been told a candle would probably keep things from getting too cold in the winter. I think I'm going to put a big window unit in there, one that cycles on and off. This building was built with no windows. No air leaks. Thanks everybody for your input.
That is what I am using. Its nice that it will just shut itself totally off when the temp set point is reached and not just turn the compressor off but leave the fan running. This time of year mine will run once or twice in the AM and then cycle on and off in the afternoon heat only running 5-10 minutes at a time then about 15-20 min off.It doesn't run at all in the night. I have mine set at 65 but the room temp is around 68.
Your wine will appreciate it in the long run!
Your wine will appreciate it in the long run!
Jerry1 said:
I was looking into the effects of temps on finished wine and ran across this web site. Interesting.
www.wineperspective.com/STORAGE%20TEMPERATURE%20&%20AGING.htm
www.wineperspective.com/STORAGE%20TEMPERATURE%20&%20AGING.htm
rhoffart
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Jerry1 said:rhoffart, you must have one heck of a closet. Read your other post and you lost 4 kits in there.
10 cases really don't take up that much room. I put them in the boxes the bottles came in, and stack them on their side. (It's a walk in ...and I use the back wall.)
Interesting read, thanks for the link!
bcfryer said:
Scotty,
I just fixed your link. We are all having problems posting links from the FVW Website. Its the HTML coding behind the site and the way it works that makes it so difficult.
I just fixed your link. We are all having problems posting links from the FVW Website. Its the HTML coding behind the site and the way it works that makes it so difficult.
Wayne1
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I'll second the use of the external thermostat for temperature control. I believe the unit George is selling is by Johnson Controls and, if so, they now make a digital version of the same device that hopefully FVW will carry soon,
Wayne
Wayne
Anybody know how this guy works? Looks like you plug the cord of the fridge into this thing, then plug this thing into the outlet and place the sensor inside the fridge.
We got a new fridge last year and put our 10yr old side by side in the garage. All was fine until this Winter when it got really cold in the garage and all the frozen food got thawed out as the freezer never came on. Seems the thermostat is in the fridge and since the fridge was cold it never sent a signal to the freezer and it slowly thawed out over about a month or so.
This little gizmo could just be the fix to the Winter problem!
We got a new fridge last year and put our 10yr old side by side in the garage. All was fine until this Winter when it got really cold in the garage and all the frozen food got thawed out as the freezer never came on. Seems the thermostat is in the fridge and since the fridge was cold it never sent a signal to the freezer and it slowly thawed out over about a month or so.
This little gizmo could just be the fix to the Winter problem!
Wayne1
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Hello Mike,
You are correct as to how it works - it is primarily used so that you can run the fridge or freezer warmer than the internal fridge thermostat works at. Beer makers seem to use it the most for controlling fermentation temps - especially for lagering. That is, you can set the devicefor 55 (whereas the internal fridge thermostat won't go that high)for example, andthe device will allowno power to the fridge until the internal sensor of the device hits the target temp and then the device allows power to the fridge which comes on until it reaches 55 again and the device cuts power off again.
I understand you can reverse it so that it can be used in the winter with a heating belt to warm up your fermentation and keep it in the desired temp range - where it would be triggered by a low temp rather than a high one.
I supposeit might work for the use you are describing if you put the device sensor in the freezer and set the device at 30 degrees or whatever you want - then the freezer temp would be driving the cooling rather than the fridge temp. I don't know if that would make the fridge get too cold or not - trying to figure it out is making my brain hurt!
Wayne
You are correct as to how it works - it is primarily used so that you can run the fridge or freezer warmer than the internal fridge thermostat works at. Beer makers seem to use it the most for controlling fermentation temps - especially for lagering. That is, you can set the devicefor 55 (whereas the internal fridge thermostat won't go that high)for example, andthe device will allowno power to the fridge until the internal sensor of the device hits the target temp and then the device allows power to the fridge which comes on until it reaches 55 again and the device cuts power off again.
I understand you can reverse it so that it can be used in the winter with a heating belt to warm up your fermentation and keep it in the desired temp range - where it would be triggered by a low temp rather than a high one.
I supposeit might work for the use you are describing if you put the device sensor in the freezer and set the device at 30 degrees or whatever you want - then the freezer temp would be driving the cooling rather than the fridge temp. I don't know if that would make the fridge get too cold or not - trying to figure it out is making my brain hurt!
Wayne
