I have my barrel against an interior concrete wall here in Napa and I
thought that would be ok to age it. I just checked the internal
temperature of the wine to find it is 76 degrees, way too warm in my
opinion. Is there a way of cooling just a barrel without spending the
money to AC the entire basement? I spend a good deal of time away
from my home here, so just putting a blanket on it during the warmth
of the day won't work. It's always in the 60's or below at night, but
during the day it can get 105+. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Rick

EnoNut wrote:

I have my barrel against an interior concrete wall here in Napa and I
thought that would be ok to age it. I just checked the internal
temperature of the wine to find it is 76 degrees, way too warm in my
opinion. Is there a way of cooling just a barrel without spending the
money to AC the entire basement? I spend a good deal of time away
from my home here, so just putting a blanket on it during the warmth
of the day won't work. It's always in the 60's or below at night, but
during the day it can get 105+. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Rick

You will speed up the aging of the wine if you let it warm up. I know of
some great reds which are made this way. At Rosemount in Australia in
the old barrel cellar the wine would warm up at the start of summer, and
we would have to check the bungs daily, as the would pop out as the wine
expands, and gives off dissolved CO2 gas. I have even heard of people
intentionally heating up white wine and putting it into barrel to age
quicker. Make sure you have plenty of SO2 in it though.

James.

Do you know what a swamp cooler is? If your humidity is lower you
could drip water on it and have a fan blow across it to provide
evaporative cooling. It only works if there is a difference in wet
and dry bulb temperatures.

It's probably a bad idea...

Joe

On Jul 5, 11:14 am, Joe Sallustio wrote:
Do you know what a swamp cooler is? If your humidity is lower you
could drip water on it and have a fan blow across it to provide
evaporative cooling. It only works if there is a difference in wet
and dry bulb temperatures.

It's probably a bad idea...

Joe

he mentioned storing in a basement, so a swamp cooler may not work.

I'd make a cardboard box, enclose the barrel, and put a block of ice
in there. start this on a weekend to see how much ice would be needed
to keep at X tempature

On Jul 5, 10:52 am, Tater wrote:
On Jul 5, 11:14 am, Joe Sallustio wrote:

Do you know what a swamp cooler is? If your humidity is lower you
could drip water on it and have a fan blow across it to provide
evaporative cooling. It only works if there is a difference in wet
and dry bulb temperatures.

It's probably a bad idea...

Joe

he mentioned storing in a basement, so a swamp cooler may not work.

I'd make a cardboard box, enclose the barrel, and put a block of ice
in there. start this on a weekend to see how much ice would be needed
to keep at X tempature

Thanks all.. I think I'll use a variation on this idea. I'll get some
foam insulation board, make a box and take a tap off of an AC duct to
run a four inch line to it. Should be enough leakage around the box
to allow cool air in.. I'll let everyone know how it comes out. Could
be a good temp solution for others needing to keep their wine cool
during a few extra hot summer months. Wow, was 105 here yesterday.

... Is there a way of cooling just a barrel without spending the
money to AC the entire basement?

How big is a "barrel"?

The homebrew beer guys have this problem a lot too. There are several
options that are given out frequently:
1. The swamp cooler that was mentioned. They usually put the
carboy in a big tub of water, put a tower or T-shirt
over the carboy and down into the water and, possibly,
blow a fan over it. The functionality of this depends
on your relative humidity.
2. Get an old fridge. The highest setting may be OK, but if it
is still too cold, then you can put a simple timer on
it or you can get a special temperature controller for it.
(Common temp controllers are the Johnson Controls A419
and the Ranco. Online homebrew places have them.)
3. Put it into a tub of water and keep ice in the water. I've
used 1/2 or gallon jugs of ice and swapped them out once
or twice a day - however often it takes to keep the temp
where you want it. Twice a day and I was able to
"lager" beer at around 50F in a 75F basement.
Insulating the tub only helps.
4. The insulated box with ice trick works too... The common
plans for that are the "son of fermentator" at:
http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF
which also includes a fan and thermostat.

Derric