I'm certain this question is asked on a monthly basis, but I'd appreciate your patience with yet another newbie:
Is it possible to do home winemaking in an environment where the air temperature hovers in the low 80's? How do you folks work around this type of enviroment?
Any suggestions/solutions would be greatly appreciated. I've not attempted winemaking before, but the interest is certainly there - I know that sooner or later (probably sooner), I'm going to give it a try.
Certainly!
Most home winemakers probably make batches of 1 to 5 gallons. For a carboy that size, if I wanted to keep it cool, I'd set it in a pan of water with a towel draped around it & into the water. If simple evaporation wasn't enough to do the trick, putting a fan in front probably would be. For large batches, people often freeze jugs of water and place them (capped)in the fermenter at intervals.
On the other hand, some of us are blessed with a cool basement for summer ferments.
While I do not consider myself an expert in the matter I have been making wine in Thailand, where 80 degrees F would be considered relatively cool weather, for a number of years and while the product is, perhaps, not equal to the greatest vintages it is a perfectly palatible wine. I also suspect that "shelf life" may not be as long as to wines stored in cooler environments.
You fill find that primary fermentation and secondary fermentation will be faster then usually discussed in this news group and I would suggest that you try to keep the wine in a shady or darkened room as the level of UV in tropical, or sub-tropical environments is often strong enough to bleach cloth and would, I'm sure, have an undesirability effect on the color of your wine, if nothing else.
I suggest that once you have made your first batch and aged it for at six months you go out and buy a box of the cheapest "box wine" you can find and set up a blind tasting session. I think you will find that you are making a better wine then at least one of the "commercial wines" on the market.
Cheers,
Bruce (k4556/at/>I'm certain this question is asked on a monthly basis, but I'd appreciate
When I started making wine in Houston in the early 80's we did not have AC. Temperatures in the mobile home I lived in would probably be in the high
90's to over 100 in the day and maybe the mid 80's at night. In that climate putting it in a pan of water would not have done anything as the humidity is so high it would not have really cooled it. That temperature should have killed any yeast but I successfully made wine. The big problem is that it did not age well. Most needed to be drunk before it was 18 mo's old.But to answer your question: Yes.
Ray
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