No money to buy any jacketed tanks, set up a cold rooms or get a glycol unit.
Possible to keep white wine fermentation temperature low enough without these things?
Plenty of white wine is made without all that equipment. There was a thread several months ago on the subject, started out with the question of whether making white wine was “real” winemaking (because of all the technology).
-Al
Agree with Al - lots of whites are made without any of that equipment. What variety are you planning to make, and how much?
Planning a white rhone, roussanne or Grenache blanc
So, how do I keep the temps low? What low budget things can I do to control temp?
Will milk jugs frozen with ice work for a 79gallon tank?
I wouldn’t worry much about cooling off a Roussanne ferment. I’ve made Roussanne before and treated it basically like Chardonnay, fermenting in barrel with no temperature control and aging it on the lees. You’re not looking so much for delicate aromatics with Roussanne anyway. A cooler fermentation with Grenache Blanc makes more sense, but I’ve helped make one in tank with no temperature control, and it turned out fine.
I’ve seen people use old refrigerators to chill down smaller fermentation vessels (carboys or even kegs) but that wouldn’t work for you unless you could split your fermentation into smaller lots and have or are able to borrow a spare fridge or two.
How low a temp are you looking for with your fermentation? Not sure about the frozen milk jug idea - I’d think you’d have to change them out pretty frequently to have much effect once fermentation starts going, although Al’s the physicist here so he might be able to tell you more about that.
Have you lined up a fruit source yet? Don’t know that either Roussanne or Grenache Blanc are very easy to find. Viognier should be easier to source.
I’d think a 79 gal fermenter would inside a macro 48. If so, I’d fill the macro with water around your fermenter and keep it cool with either fresh water or some ice. If you cant find a Macro 48 cheap, cut the top off a 330 gal plastic tote-in a-cage that should cost you $200 or less.
Another way would be to get one of the cooling snakes that they sell at More Wine (cheaper than drop-in stainless plates, I think) and just get a cheap sump pump to circulate ice water from a tub through the snake inserted into the fermenter. The caveat is that the snakes aren’t easy to clean.
We use 55 gallon SS drums and a fan in our hill-side cellar. If it gets out of control, I put burlap bags on the drums and spray water on them. The fans do the rest. Research I see on aromatic whites shows that in 60’s is good.
I built a cold box for around $450 total that will fit two 55 gal stainless barrels on a rack and 4 kegs on a small pallet. I used 4, 4’x8’ sheets of 4" rigid insulation for walls and top. So its 4’ wide and tall x 8’ long with no floor, sitting on a slab. For cooling, I use a 5000 btu AC unit that I modified to bypass the temperature control. I used a Ranco digital control that turns the AC on/off based on its own temperature probe inside the box. I ferment my Viognier and Sav Blanc at 58-60 and the setup worked really well. I think you could build the same box more upright for a 79 gallon tank. Don’t be tempted to buy a more powerful AC unit, 5K BTU is plenty and you don’t want to have cycling issues with a large unit. If you are interested in how to bypass the AC control and the built in 62 limit, PM or email me for details.