I like to brew wine; It's only a hobby but I'm obsessed!
This is the place to be if you want to see what another brewer is up to or want some encouragement to start or diversify. I've posted heaps of recipes (clicky) and 2 wine-making vids (here for wine made from cartons of juice blog / youtube, and here for Blackberry wine on the pulp blog / youtube).
If you're new here then do explore, take this link for tips about where to find what you're interested in.


Sunday, 27 June 2010

It's Hot in Much of the UK

Some of you, like me, will be fermenting at the mo. Some of you, unlike me, will be concerned that your brew is getting to hot (I put a wetsuit on and tried body-boarding in a surf-less sea, still had a nice day out tho). You'll probably be wondering about all sorts of ways to cool it down. But before you start emptying the freezer to make ice consider this low tech but very effective method....

Wet a towel, or some tea towels. Squeeze them 'til they stop dripping and then drape them over your fermenting vessel. Put them in a well ventilated spot, like next to an open window. As the water evaporates it cools the contents of the fermenting vessel. All you have to do is keep wetting the (tea) towels. If you have a fan then this will help, and if you have a cool stone (tiles, cement etc) floor this will further help.

This is all due to something called latent heat of evaporation. In a nutshell it takes energy to get water to evaporate, this energy comes from heat, the heat comes from whatever is in the fermentation vessel.

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