Winemaking project: Pictures page 6!

[eggrookie2010]

I love this forum! Every question I have had in my little pea brain is magically already a thread for me to review. I am going to give this a whirl. I have one question (forgive me I have not read EVERY post but please can you tell me how this is stored while fermenting? Do I have to keep it in the house or will the bard do? It gets over 100 here in the summer. Will the temperature fluctuation damage the product? My library has a couple of these books, all checked out and I can be like the 5th person on the waiting list. Im not wanting to wait or my enthusiasm might fizzle out.

 

[freemotion]

The ideal temp is 60-80 during active fermentation, cooler for storage once bottled. I keep it in the house, upstairs, during active fermentation. I have the ones I started in the fall/winter in my living room near the woodstove, on a built in cupboard with bookshelves over them. Others are on the floor. It is quite decorative. The summer ones are in the dining room, more out of the way. I have a friend whose basement is a more steady temp than mine and she does hers there.

If your temp goes up to 100....do you have a cellar? You can also wrap it with an insulating blanket to protect it somewhat from huge fluctuations in temperature. Or plan it so that the bulk of the fermentation takes place when it is a bit cooler there.

 

[eggrookie2010]

I WISH I HAD A CELLAR! I will have an abundance of produce coming this summer and then on a regular basis and I fear that even if I process it all-canning etc...it will be ruined with the heat. Im wondering if in my climate I can DIG a small"root cellar" type of space or if it is just too hot anyway. Im also trying to figure out how to store bulk grains etc because Im reading that high temps reduce shelf life by 50%. So how am I supposed to store for the long term!?! Didnt mean to hijack the thread. Ill make a new post. But really this wine and mead thing is very interesting and Id like to try but dont know where I could keep it.

 

[freemotion]

Is it 100 pretty much year round? In your house, too? No AC?

 

[eggrookie2010]

NO. Right now it is about 50 outside and pretty much March -October are over 80 if not 100. Inside stays 70-80 but I have very limited space.

 

[freemotion]

Find some space! It doesn't take much. Stick it in a closet or cupboard, under a small table with a tablecloth, be creative. Or, like me, be proud of it and leave it right out in the open so everyone can think you are weird!

 

[abifae]

Join the SCA and borrow someone else's space.

I know a lot of people who store at one another's houses for various things due to space and whatnot.

 

[eggrookie2010]

what is SCA? And..everyone already thinks Im weird. Thanks ok with me though cause I think all of THEM are weird! LOL! Yes I CAN store the wine or mead in the house. I was whining about food storage. I need to dig a cellar of some sort I guess. Im going to give this wine thing a try!

 

[cuallaidh]

what is SCA? And..everyone already thinks Im weird. Thanks ok with me though cause I think all of THEM are weird! LOL! Yes I CAN store the wine or mead in the house. I was whining about food storage. I need to dig a cellar of some sort I guess. Im going to give this wine thing a try!

SCA is the Society for Creative Anachronisms. It is an international organization that reenacts the middle ages. I myself am my local chapters Seneschal (president) and I can assure you is is a blast (and very geeky). I make mead and share it with my fellow SCAdians quite often. I live in a small two bedroom apartment and still manage to find room to have two five gallon batches and up to four one gallon batches all brewing simultaneously with judicious use of closet space and underneath the kitchen table. The great thing about making wine/mead at home is you can make batches any size, I did some 750ml batches for a class on mead making I taught and they turned out wonderful.

 

[abifae]

Cool Cuallaidh. Quite a few SCAdians here. Makes sense geeks who study medieval ways would find SS. Or SS folk find medieval studies fun?

I want to start mead soon. I just need to get the 5 gallon containers. And honey.