Because I live in Sunny California where it can stay quite warm for most of the year, I would like some recommendations concerning ,
what types of wines do best at higher temperature fermentation?
What yeast brands do best in higher temperat6ure
I have read some yeast charts that state what temperatures range and speed of fermentation are recommended…
However, where I live, it can easily stay between 75 degrees - 85 degrees inside my house a good part of the year so I would like to start making some wine that would do best within those temperatures .
I apologize if I have not given you enough information but as I said, I am new to this
all recommendations , information will be very appreciated.
Wine buff
I’m far from an expert but the kit instructions with Wine Expert products that that you should be targeting mid-70’s for fermentation temperature so I don’t think you’re too restricted in what you can make. Seems that wine yeast isn’t nearly as temp sensitive as beer yeast and those temps are not at issue.
From what I’ve read ‘real’ wine makers might use different temperatures including fermenting white wines in the 60’s but their timelines are much different that wine from a kit. I’ve fermented wine from the mid-60’s up to the mid-70’s and other than the lower temps taking longer to ferment out I haven’t been able to tell a difference.
Kit wines are designed to ferment well at normal house temperatures, usually around 70F.
If you are stepping away from kits, the best advice would be to look at traditional European wines that are made in climates similar to yours. So Sicilian or Spanish wines might be a good guide for what you want to make. These are typically red wines, and the yeasts that are used for them do well at somewhat elevated temperatures. If you go to the Lalvin website, you should be able to find the strains that are sourced from different places, though you might have trouble finding many of them in homebrew shops.
If you don’t have decent temperature control, stay away from most white wines, as they really benefit from temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. They’ll lose a lot of the delicate aromatic compounds when fermented at higher temps.
Kit manufacturers are really good at what they do, which is to make the whole process as easy and fast to complete as possible so new hobbyists can enjoy drinkable wine fairly quickly and reliably. So they formulate the ingredients to be as forgiving as possible, choose yeasts that will work well in home temperatures, and often add more additives or change the recommended process in ways that no professional wine maker would do, because it might compromise the final quality slightly (or violate some of the strict rules regarding commercial production of wine). but is acceptable for home production.
This does mean of course that you shouldn’t expect to get the highest quality of wine from a kit, but you should be able to get something that will still be decent. When I switched from kits to fresh fruit for my wine making, it took a couple of years before I felt that my wines were as good as I had made using kits. There is significantly more complexity in making wine from scratch than from kits, and with fresh fruit it is VERY easy to make a mistake that will compromise the quality if you don’t know what you are doing.
I agree with most of the above. Not only are kit wines designed for very easy use, they all use very robust yeasts which can perform well under all sorts of conditions.
I would not say that fermentation conditions have no impact on wine quality, but they cetainly have much less of an impact than they do on beer.
Interesting thing about kit white wine, they actually perform wose at lower temperatures than kit reds do. Should not be the case, but it is.
If you are doing kit wine, I would not worry too much. Maybe avoid making it during the hotter months of the year.
My real concern would be storage. Generally speaking, wine should not be stored above 24C IMO, and temperatures should not fluxuate rapidly. I prefer cellaring between 14C-16C myself. If your storage conditions are the same as the fermentation temps you mentioned above, don’t plan to age long term. Very high temps (28C+ can cook the wine). The worse the conditions, the quicker the wine will oxidize.
On the bright side - if you can manage somewhat stable conditions, slightly warmer temps (no more than 24/25C) will age the wine much faster and make it better sooner.
Thank you both for the info.
since I am new , I have not filled in my personal info yet. I am older so even my fingers move slower!
I noticed one of you is from Ontario and the other Finland. I can only assume that during the winter months, you can use the snow outdoors to your advantage.
Where I live, Santa wears shorts and sunglasses!
I thank you for your advice. I will continue to read, take notes, buy more stuff and try to find room in my garage with all my other hobbies. I am willing to do the work and I hope I do not ask too many questions that make you all roll your eyes!
The cooler climate in Ottawa can be a blessing or a curse for sure. We just had one of our coldest winters in 30 years.
When the outside temperatures are in the -10 C range, my garage is great for cold crashing beer or Lagering my kegs. When it is -30 / -40 range, not so much.
Can’t imagine living in California with no AC. My AC is broken and it pisses me off quite a bit.
