A heating pad, what a great idea! A hot water bottle might do it too, just
to get it going. How long would you leave the heating pad on? I'd be a bit
wary of leaving it on for hours at a time when I'm not around to make sure
it's all right.

Since this was my first batch, I was a bit reluctant to leave it to start in
a cool place, afraid it wouldn't work at all and I would ruin it. I may be
willing to try that next time though, even without the heating pad. If I
were to leave it to do its own thing in the basement with no added heat, and
after a few days it did nothing, would I still be able to save it by warming
it?

KD


"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
om...
> KD the odd heating pad lying around the house and a few old bath
> towels work fine too. 55 F is not too cold for fermenting whites; if
> you want to retains some of the fresh fruity flavors that is
> recommended. Sauv Blanc can go either way on that. The fermentation
> actually provides a little heat once it gets going too. The furnace
> room is a bad idea as you already know, the fumes and the temperature
> variations would be a bad situation.
>
> I'm on the east coast too and my basement is similar to yours, I do
> everything down there. If you work with fresh juice or grapes next
> year the fermentation will be done long before it gets cold, those
> teperatures will help you clear and stabilize your wine.
> Regards,
> Joe
>
>
> >
> > Doug, I'm thinking you may have a point in moving my operation into the
> > basement. It doesn't go below freezing down there, but when I started
the
> > wine back in May it was still fairly chilly here in Atlantic Canada. I
> > usually have my main floor no warmer than about 60-65 F in winter, so
the
> > basement was probably ten degrees lower, a bit chilly to start the
> > fermentation process. May be that the answer would be to invest in a
heating
> > belt for that portion. I had considered the furnace room, but while
that's
> > warmer, it could provide some unwanted flavours. Nothing like that fuel
oil
> > note to round out a good white wine.