Newbie question about temperature

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LJPhillips

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Made a few batches of wine 20+ years ago and recently decide to start again. I have a few 1-gallon fruit wines in the works, a 3-gallon elderberry batch from fruit base, and a white kit wine in the primary fermenter.

Because I live in S Florida, I don't have a cool basement. But I did find a big wine cooler on Craigslist. So I have these environments to work with -
Kitchen about 78 degrees
Back patio about 84 degrees
Spare bedroom about 72 degrees
Wine chiller that can probably be set to 50-65 degrees

Currently I am using the back patio (84 degrees) for primary fermentation, and moving jugs/carboys to the spare bedroom (about 72 degrees) for secondary fermentation. Is this reasonable?

At what point should wines be moved to a cool environment (ie the wine cooler) to age... After bottling? What temp should I shoot for in the cooler? It's adjustable but only with an unmarked knob.

Thanks in advance!
Laura
 
If you could do it at 72 degrees, that would be perfect!

You normally cellar the wine after bottling. Aging happens faster at room temperature, so keeping it cool then preserves it for longer. Aside from making using a colder temperature for cold stabilization when the wine is finished, anything under about mid 60s is too cool for fermentation.
 
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