You might be a redneck if . . . . . .

[olusteebus]

your wine cellar has a dirt floor.I recently (nearly) completed my wine making and storing area. It is in my crawl space under my house (large enough to stand in in the wine making area) where the temp stays at least 10 degrees lower than outside temps. I have yet to see it top 70 degrees. I built an insulated box to place wine in in carboys to keep the temp from varying. It works great. Got the idea for the wine racks here. I have about 280 bottles (empty right now) in the air.

I have just begun making wine and I have one carboy with a low end chardonnay in it. It was my first attempt so I did not want to splurge on a kit at this time. It seems to be coming alone but it was not ready in 4 weeks for sure.

I have a large "rope" tub I got from walmart with an aquarium heater and pump to circulate the water. I will keep my fermenting wines in it. I plan on building me a pump/bottler/degasser (hopefully) or getting an all in one.

I had a washing area just outside my cellar but tore it down this week to build a deck. I have a stainless sink and I will have a table along with a rack to drain carboys. When I finish that, I will post photos.

my deck for the wine cellar

The view from the deck.

That beautiful chair was obtained free of charge. I had to take loads of trash off the other day and it was sitting next to me at the landfill. I wasn't sure if I wanted it but they told me that the landfill has an excellent return policy so I acquired it

 

[Julie]

lol, you may think you are redneck but that is one awesome setup!

 

[millwright01]

Looks good. Nice job on the rack.

 

[Runningwolf]

Great looking cellar. Why are the bottles wrapped in plastic on the bottom half of the rack in the first picture?

 

[Famineguy]

Nice looking setup and I really like the wine rack.

 

[olusteebus]

Great looking cellar. Why are the bottles wrapped in plastic on the bottom half of the rack in the first picture?

I bought a lot of bottles and carboys from a gentleman who was getting out of making wine and he covered his bottles after cleaning with a newspaper cover. I kept them on.

all my bottles are empty now. gotta fill em.

 

[lbwines]

Thanks for your idea with a wine rack. This is what I made yesterday afternoon.

 

[sully]

cellar looks great i will also be copying that wine rack will be bottling today and need a simple rack to build. i am in construction so have all the materials need in my garage now. Thanks for the great idea. Great work I was also wondering about the bags on the bottles. also what are the orange clamps on the top of carboy???? man looks really nice

 

[Runningwolf]

also what are the orange clamps on the top of carboy???? man looks really nice

Those are not clamps, they are handles. I put them on everyone of my carboys.

 

[olusteebus]

Thanks for your idea with a wine rack. This is what I made yesterday afternoon.

I see that you did. Note the big blue tub. That is for initial ferment like I explained on your thread.

cellar looks great i will also be copying that wine rack will be bottling today and need a simple rack to build. i am in construction so have all the materials need in my garage now. Thanks for the great idea. Great work I was also wondering about the bags on the bottles. also what are the orange clamps on the top of carboy???? man looks really nice

The man I bought the bottles from wrapped his clean bottles in newspaper sleeves. Unfortunately, I read the news on the internet so I can't do that.

I added one thing yesterday that I absolutely love. I don't even like to move a half empty carboy so I copied an idea I saw elsewhere to make a pump out of a 12 volt tire inflator.

I went to Harbor Freight where they have a small one on sell for 8 bucks. took it apart, used jb weld to secure a 1/4 inch barb over the pump inlet. cut a hole in the housing for the barb to stick out and put it back together. I cut the outlet hose.

I also serves as a degasser if you put a little crimp or valve on the wine line.

I used a white 1/4 inch line from Lowes.

It will transfer a carboy of wine in less than five minutes.