Beginner - Need ideas on how to cool my wine during aging

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barcoestates

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Hello everyone,

I'm new to winemaking and am in the middle of my first batch. Fermintation and degassing stages are complete, now on aging. I need some ideas on how to cool down my wine. The kit I used is the Celebration del Mondo - Chilean Cabernet/Melot. The instructions say I need to keep store it in the 6.5 glass carboy for 22-45 days at 50-60 degrees F, then bottle. I have my wine in my apartment and the avg ambient temperature is about 70 F.

All suggestions are welcome!

I've looked for a mini fridge and a kegerator but trying to keep my cost down.

I've created a blog documenting my progress if you guys/gals are interested:
http://barcoestateswinemakingadventure.blogspot.com

Thanks in advance,

Kris
 
Put it in a cool spot in the apartment. If it is not cool enough, try a fan, air conditioner. You can also do a search for "swamp cooler". In simple terms, you wrap the carboy in a towel or shirt and place it in a water (cooler or pan). The evaporating action of the water will lower the temp of whats in the carboy. You can also rotate frozen water bottles in the water to cool the water more.
 
Thanks Heckler. I'll post what I came up with.

Is aging my wine at 70 degrees instead of 50-60 going to degrade the quality of the wine? Is this step completely necessary?
 
I have only made three batches of wine but I aged the first two at about 60 - 65 and have my third in the basement at 62 right now. One of the keys is keeping the temp pretty steady. They have turned out great so far but maybe someone can chime in on what difference temps can make. Even with my beers I do a secondary and try to keep it all in the basement.
 
I have i fridge and managed to lower the temp in it to 54 f is it OK to store the wine in it?
 
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