Advice on 5L PET DemiJohns

[wayne]

Hi All,

Could anyone tell me how long it is advisable to store finished wine for ageing in these. Also I keep my wines in the attic, is this a good idea, I have no where else to store them and not sure what the cold will do to them.

Many Thanks,
Wayne.

[SiSandrine]

In plastic DJs I would avoid storing longer than 6 months after fermentation has finished. Probably best to bottle prior to that. I have left them that long before with no ill-effects. Also I wouldn't generally keep wines in the attic. Cold will do the wine no harm and can in fact be good for a number of reasons, however wine doesn't appreciate large temeprature variations in a short period of time and best to avoid warm temperatures so attics can be a little extreme.

In the end my solution to this was that I removed some floorboards under the stairs and made a hatch. All wine goes in there with an annual variation of 11-18 c. Not ideal but the variation is very slow at least.

In summary try your best to find dark, cool, consistent temperatures.

[wayne]

Thanks for the reply, the problem i've got is limited space and I was a bit too eager to start my wines off, I started with a load of fruit wines which take up to a year to mature and plastic demi johns take up less space. 6 months is a good timeframe for me as another 6 months in the bottle should be no problem. The attic is my only solution, will the temp variations spoil the wine as I'm on a roll now with wine no1 and other variants I've also got a 5 gallon barolo just about to be cleared with another 2 5 gallon kits waiting The wine no1 variants will take up the space I have been allocated in the kitchen (my winery) and of course they are drinkable earlier. The attic is my last hope for storing my kit wines. I wonder how much it would cost to insulate the shed and rig it up to the house then add a thermostatic radiator!!!!!

[SiSandrine]

I 'over winter' my wines in the shed. But bring inside for summer. You would need to check what the attic temperature is like in summer to be sure. Some folk have used a fridge setup. See thread below.

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?5436-Constant-Temperature-in-a-Garage&highlight=insulate+fridge

[Delmonteman]

The attic is my last hope for storing my kit wines...

I have a similar problem with some of mine and my only solution appears to be to put shelving on the wall so I can put demi johns up against the wall and build an insulated cabinet around the other three sides and the top and bottom. My hope is that the thermal inertia of the brickwork will help to slow the temperature variation down sufficiently enough not to ruin the wine...

My other thought was to bury it in the back garden, but that's another thread!!!

[wayne]

Delmonteman, do you mean shelving and cabinet insulation in your attic? If so that could be possible. What I can't get my head around is, what happens to the wine in these temperature variations? Will bringing them down and sulphiting every 6 months or so work???? Or is it a case of leaving them and hoping for the best.

Wayne.

[Tibley Bobley]

I've been doing my brewing and storing what I brew at my brother's place (as that's where the apples are). The cider is supposed to be stored until maturity in a cool place. His place is short of cool places inside the house and the greenhouse fluctuates wildly, so it's going into a barn or shed. I found an old cupboard in a skip - big enough to fit about 2 dozen 2Litre bottles of cider - so I grabbed that and cleaned it up. Then I found a couple of huge slabs of insulation material (kingspan I think) to put round the cupboard... hoping this might provide a suitably cool and stable temperature for the cider. Do you suppose that'll work well enough?

[jay]

i spend a bite of time in lofts as a plumber and they do get very hot in the summer but if yo can get holde of a lot of ( kingspan ) it will help but can only do so much if we get a very hot summer it will still get hot up their.

[Delmonteman]

Delmonteman, do you mean shelving and cabinet insulation in your attic? If so that could be possible. What I can't get my head around is, what happens to the wine in these temperature variations? Will bringing them down and sulphiting every 6 months or so work???? Or is it a case of leaving them and hoping for the best.

Wayne.

Yes Wayne I mean in the attic (which is a loft to me as basically 'roofspace' with no stairs...). Just been reading and ideal temps are 8 to 18C with the best temp straight in the middle of the two. High daily fluctuations are bad...

Higher temps result in premature ageing and potentially a 'cooked' taste so I don't think sulphiting will make much of a difference... What wines are you ageing and why Wayne? Mine are supermarket juice wines but with 4l juice to the gallon demi so I understand these benefit from about a years ageing so I am trying to get a monthly/ annual cycle going...

[wayne]

The wines I'm ageing are all fresh fruit based and I started making them before I found this site. All the recipe's state that they would all need putting aside for at least 12 months. At the moment it is cold up there so shouldn't really be a problem but................what to do when the summer comes.

Wayne.

[Delmonteman]

Worst case scenario is you could sweeten them up and drink them before they are technically ready then just make wines with shorter maturation requirements (WN1 & 2's)

Either that or bottle as an when and continue ageing in the bottle. It's surprising what unlikely places can be found for bottle storage... My bottles are stored behind the kick boards under the cabinets in the kitchen... I have a year old mead under there now that I forgot all about...!

[SiSandrine]

My bottles are stored behind the kick boards under the cabinets in the kitchen... I have a year old mead under there now that I forgot all about...!

Oooh good idea that.

[Cellar_Rat]

Get the bath panel off - loads of space in there. Plastic baths conduct very little heat.

PS attic/loft make me nervous if they pop and spill!