Wine Making Setup.. Let's see it!

[ibglowin]

My Winery is 55-60F for ~7 months (Fall, Winter, Spring) of the year and during the Summer months (late Spring, Summer, early Fall) I run a small window unit that keeps it 64F.

I know the many ways to raise temperatures or lower them for the various reasons. But what type of temperatures are you looking to keep you work room at?

Because I would have loved to used my garage after adding an air conditioner but was a little afraid that I couldn't keep it at a constant temperature.

 

[Kraffty]

I keep mine at a high of 70, lower of course in winter. Here's the one thing I really want to add in the new winery. Sliding shelves that take up so much less room. Price is really reasonable considering you're adding 5 units and the overall footprint is pretty small since you only use access space as you need it. These are found at Uline but I'm sure they can be found elsewhere.

 

[pgentile]

Few cell phone shots of my dungeon.

 

[Kraffty]

That's a good sized dungeon!

 

[JamesGrape]

I keep mine at a high of 70, lower of course in winter. Here's the one thing I really want to add in the new winery. Sliding shelves that take up so much less room. Price is really reasonable considering you're adding 5 units and the overall footprint is pretty small since you only use access space as you need it. These are found at Uline but I'm sure they can be found elsewhere.
View attachment 50922View attachment 50923

You can also use wheeled shelves instead of the sliding tracks. It might give more options for movement. The shelving units with wheels are very common, the kits can be made full or half height, with or without wheels.

 

[ASR]

I'll take some a little later but I would bet the main item people have or wish they had is a sink.

I wish I had a larger work sink and one of those industrial-kitchen faucets that are felxible and you can move around!

 

[Ajmassa]

I wish I had a larger work sink and one of those industrial-kitchen faucets that are felxible and you can move around!

I had the same exact mindset- especially after not have any water source in my wine areas at all. I was dead set on making a proper sink area when I had the opportunity.
Well, the opportunity came with a new house this year. So I did exactly what you described.
At first I thought i went a little overboard. But after some time I’m finding I’ve got no wasted space. I utilize all of it. A lot. Now I’ve got no clue how I went so long without any sink at all.

 

[CK55]

Nice to have some entertainment options in the Winery although you can't really do both at the same time. I like to stream music through the AppleTV via iTunes or Pandora etc. This time of year both Mrs IB and I play Fantasy Football so Sundays is ~5 hours of NFL Redzone which can be streamed into the Winery as well. Nice to have it on when the big plays come on.

View attachment 50918

Nice I like seeing that many bottles.

 

[RonObvious]

For those of you lucky enough to have sinks in your basement wineries - how did you plumb the drain line? Most basement sinks would be lower in elevation than the house's septic pipes, so I assume you'd have to have some sort of pump to move wash water up to the pipes, right?

 

[Ajmassa]

For those of you lucky enough to have sinks in your basement wineries - how did you plumb the drain line? Most basement sinks would be lower in elevation than the house's septic pipes, so I assume you'd have to have some sort of pump to move wash water up to the pipes, right?

My basement had lines for washer/dryer luckily. Built a new laundry rm upstairs- leaving the lines up for grabs
It still wasn’t easy tho. The drain tied into the soil line at the end of line before running to street. And was galv steel pipe thru cinder— so no moving the existing trap. And my sink was too low to be pitched properly.
It took a lot of tweaking and trial & error making connections to get it pitched enough. Every 1/4” mattered. Not exactly code- but it works.

 

[mainshipfred]

For those of you lucky enough to have sinks in your basement wineries - how did you plumb the drain line? Most basement sinks would be lower in elevation than the house's septic pipes, so I assume you'd have to have some sort of pump to move wash water up to the pipes, right?

You could but some houses do have plumbing low enough, evidently yours does not. Below is just one example. If you're worried about odors you can get an air admittance valve. You will be loving yourself if you give yourself a sink.

https://www.amazon.com/Simer-2925B-...ocphy=9007576&hvtargid=pla-305378845842&psc=1

https://www.zoro.com/oatey-air-admi...1iCOD40vDIWmA3aTJHOuW7Y8MbHycdCxoCmZUQAvD_BwE

 

[cmason1957]

Putting running water and a sink in the basement is the best thing my wife and i have done for our winemaking. We were lucky in that we had easy access to everything the plumber needed to hook up to, only cost something like $200 + the sink and the minor framing I put around it all.

 

[RonObvious]

That Simer pump looks like a great solution - thanks for the tip Fred! I'm definitely getting tired of running equipment up and down the stairs to wash it in the kitchen!

 

[Scooter68]

I would suggest raising the sink legs about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. You don't need a lot of drop but letting any stand at all in horizontal pipes is not a good thing. I had a similar issue in our basement and had to put the utility sink up on solid concrete blocks (4" x 8" x 16") laid flat and cemented them down. I also invested in an PVC Backwater Valve, 1-1/2-Inch * since this basement is in an old house with septic system and has had the occasional line blockage that resulted in 'water' backing up into the old utility sink.



* https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CBIQFZI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[RonObvious]

Good suggestion - the last thing I would want would be "water" backing up into the sink!

 

[ianPGApro]

I had the same exact mindset- especially after not have any water source in my wine areas at all. I was dead set on making a proper sink area when I had the opportunity.
Well, the opportunity came with a new house this year. So I did exactly what you described.
At first I thought i went a little overboard. But after some time I’m finding I’ve got no wasted space. I utilize all of it. A lot. Now I’ve got no clue how I went so long without any sink at all.

This looks amazing!! Definitely given me some ideas!

 

[Ajmassa]

This looks amazing!! Definitely given me some ideas!

Aside from sink area the rest of my wine room consists of freebies,Discarded items from work, yard sales, online auctions, etc since temporary.
The deep 2bay sink with drainboard was a local online restaurant auction too.
Pegboard and Pre-rinse faucet “space saver” version. (2’ instead of 4’) Both from Amazon.

And I put in a hose bib for rinsing off equipment by the sump pump. One stop shop.

 

[ianPGApro]

Aside from sink area the rest of my wine room consists of freebies,Discarded items from work, yard sales, online auctions, etc since temporary.
The deep 2bay sink with drainboard was a local online restaurant auction too.
Pegboard and Pre-rinse faucet “space saver” version. (2’ instead of 4’) Both from Amazon.

And I put in a hose bib for rinsing off equipment by the sump pump. One stop shop.

1 Week in... and I hate your beautiful sink setup even more

So for everyone in regards to sanitation and storage of additives. When you are sanitizing for push downs or testings is it best to just use a squirt bottle to sanitize items before use or do you usually make up a bucket so you can let your items sanitize for a period of time? Trying to make sure everything is on the up and up while also being efficient.

Storage of yeasts, bacteria's, and additives. It looks like most of the small packages will be used in it's entirety for most of the time (yeasts,go ferm, opti red). But if an item is not totally used what is the best practice to store it? Example would be Fermaid O. Anything that is resealable I'm sure is just fine.

Thanks!

 

[Johnd]

1 Week in... and I hate your beautiful sink setup even more

So for everyone in regards to sanitation and storage of additives. When you are sanitizing for push downs or testings is it best to just use a squirt bottle to sanitize items before use or do you usually make up a bucket so you can let your items sanitize for a period of time? Trying to make sure everything is on the up and up while also being efficient.

Storage of yeasts, bacteria's, and additives. It looks like most of the small packages will be used in it's entirety for most of the time (yeasts,go ferm, opti red). But if an item is not totally used what is the best practice to store it? Example would be Fermaid O. Anything that is resealable I'm sure is just fine.

Thanks!

I keep a little spray bottle on hand, a quick spritz on kmeta on the item a few minutes before using it and it's good to go.

 

[mainshipfred]

1 Week in... and I hate your beautiful sink setup even more

So for everyone in regards to sanitation and storage of additives. When you are sanitizing for push downs or testings is it best to just use a squirt bottle to sanitize items before use or do you usually make up a bucket so you can let your items sanitize for a period of time? Trying to make sure everything is on the up and up while also being efficient.

Storage of yeasts, bacteria's, and additives. It looks like most of the small packages will be used in it's entirety for most of the time (yeasts,go ferm, opti red). But if an item is not totally used what is the best practice to store it? Example would be Fermaid O. Anything that is resealable I'm sure is just fine.

Thanks!

I keep all my excess additives in the cooler and seal them very well.