Alternate Storage

[DemonDrink]

Sooooo, today I ended up arguing with my wife because she has a friend, who has a friend, whose husband had a carboy explode in their bedroom and she cut her foot on a piece of glass, then had be pay to get the floor cleaned.

Obviously the most logical reaction for my wife to have is to flip shit, because I would possibly be bringing that sort of potential chaos into our family living space. I kept up the argument for around 45 minutes, throwing up every conceivable precaution I could produce (trashbag, double trashbag, triple trashbag, triple trashbag in bathtub, triple trashbag in bathtub in larger plastic trash can), but to no avail. She keeps saying "the garage," to which I keep telling her that the weather here is far too inconsistent to facilitate yeast growth.

I'm attributing it to the fact that her sole purpose in life is to dash every hope I am possible of manifesting, but now I'm in search of a place to store my mead as it ferments that's outside of our house.

I've thought of...

1. The crawlspace beneath the house, but I don't know if it's a constant temperature.

2. A friend's house, but then I feel like it doesn't belong to me anymore.

3. Maybe renting a storage unit?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Riverat]

Well I'm down here next to Savannah so I might suggest that the garage might work for the winter with some fairly inexpensive temp control such as a refrigerator with a light bulb as heater and a termal control you can then use in the summer (or just a box with said heater) as temps aren't too brutal in a lot of Georgia (went to high school in Norcross) and using yeasts that like cool ferments. Them maybe migrate to the plastic bottles and slowly sneak them back in when things warm up?
I have the (good, bad and indifferent) situation of living alone so I can take over any spare room or surface...maybe having some regulation on occasion wouldn't be all bad!

 

[DemonDrink]

That sounds like a pretty good idea, given I can make some space in the garage.
And I'll definitely do some more research into different yeasts.

As a side note, if there's anything I've learned from marriage, it's to never let someone else regulate you. Depending on the type of person you get in with, it creates an opening for them to keep you under his/her thumb.

I've been trying to break my wife's dictatorial habit for 4 years now. Lol.

 

[tweak'e]

easy enough to make somthing up on the garage.
in the meantime why not just use some plastic carboys? (eg better bottles)
its one of the reasons i use them and that the are light and easy to be freighted to your house.

 

[DemonDrink]

I guess I'll do that. I'll just have to forego as-traditional-as-possible-mead-making until I can construct a proper wine cellar or something.

 

[Soyala_Amaya]

See, the way I get around stuff like this is to make sure he has a large messy hobby too. My boy does 40k, some playing, but mostly painting, and chainmail. He leaves pliers, little steel rings, spills paint, and all sorts of stuff all over the place.

I've always told him, if he can contain his hobby to a single desk, I'd stop spilling out across the basement floor. ;D I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Compromise, it's a beautiful thing!

 

[DemonDrink]

Lol, making chainmail seems pretty badass, though.

Unfortunately/fortunately we both already have mutual home-destroying fire tornadoes always darting around the house that are 1 (Jack), 2 (Liam), and 3 (Reagan) years old, so that takes up most of her time, and a lot of my time when I'm not at work misunderstanding Arabs.

I'm coupling my (projected) mead-making with my (projected) bowyery in an attempt to learn actual skills while I shy away from video-gaming and watching too much damned TV, and I'm really wanting to do everything as archaically as I can, but for now I'll just go with plastic bottles and a thermostat.

 

[Vance G]

location for brewing.

When you say your vocation includes misunderstanding Arabs, I wonder if you are a hero back from the fray and if so I say thankyou and I am in your debt. If you have a pet center and about fifty bucks, go get a thermostat controller that will turn a 1000 watts of heat lamp or light bulbs off and on. 100 watt bulb enough. Get an appliance or furniture box and set it in the corner of the garage. Put in a wood stand to get carboys off the concrete. Set the thermostat to turn on your lights at 70 or so. Shine the lights on a sheet of metal hanging on string to the cardboard so you are not lighting the brew. This is a cheap and effective brewing box that may keep peace in the home. It would work in the crawl space too. best of luck and Merry Christmas. Keep lights off cardboard! FIRES ARE NOT AUTHORIZED.

 

[DemonDrink]

I appreciate your thanks, but I've never actually gotten to go fight downrange. My job is as an Iraqi-Arabic linguist, so I essentially inadvertently kill bad guys with their own words.
I do hope to be deployed some day and earn my keep, though.

As for your advice, that might be the most intricate device I've heard of on this site. I'll definitely take a crack at constructing one of those on a day I can set aside a few hours for it. Thank you.

 

[mmclean]

For an unbreakable carboy, take a look at these.

The only large size carboy I'll use.

 

[brian92fs]

For maintaining temp, a small chest freezer with a dual channel temp controller and heater would be the fancier option. Warm in the winter and cool in the summer. You could get that whole setup new for $300-$400. Cheaper if you find the freezer on Craigslist. This setup would also allow you to cold crash easily.

The "Son of Fermentation Chiller" design is a cheaper option, but you'll have to build it. Its designed for cooling, but it seems a heater could be added pretty easily. He states that its in the $60 - $70 range for the materials.

Also, you could look at cornie kegs for bulk aging. Those are pretty close to indestructible. I bought mine at Keg Connection. They seemed to have the best price I could find once shipping & tax are factored in.