# Wine Fridge



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I was thinking of getting a wine fridge as I would like to start making other cheeses that need to be temp controlled. Do you have to add anything for humidity or are they at the correct humidity? Can you set humidity as well as temp?

Any other suggestions for aging equipment?

Thanks.


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

You need a small humidifier, like the kind that takes an empty 20 ounce soda bottle. Or, individual plastic storage containers to keep the humidity up. Or, to pack the fridge full of cheese so that humidity is there naturally.

I've found even for wine fridges that have humidity controls, the humidity still needs to be adjusted and controlled manually.

Florist fridges work well, as do modified freezers with an external temp controller. If you want something bigger, a basic room with a coolbot and air conditioner and humidifer work well.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Thanks, Pav.

I was thinking something small...that's why I was thinking about the wine fridge (a mini-one).

I don't know what you mean about a small humidifier. And the plastic storage containers, do you just put water in them?

I just don't want to spend money on something that won't work.

Thanks for your help.


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

If you can get a small wine fridge off craigslist or ebay, that seems to be a great solution.

If you take a plastic container, with the lid on you don't usually need water. If it's a big container with just a few cheeses, sometimes you do. I buy eggcrate from the hardware store, those ceiling tile things, and put that on the bottom so the cheese has air circulating all around it.

By a humidifier, I meant one of those small personal ultrasonic ones. The ones that use a standard water bottle seem to work well. You can either rig it up to a humidity monitor, or just a basic timer, to go off every hour for a minute, for example. It will take a bit of experimentation to tune everything.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultrasonic-Stea...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19b9271703


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Ok, thanks.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Cindy I just use a rubbermaid storage container...they are from shoebox sizes to much larger at walmart. They are under $5 with the lid and are see through. I use them to store my unwrapped soap in also. I have the needlepoint plastic canvas that I also use to line my soap cure racks with, cut to size to hold the cheese up off the bottom. In walmart in the craft section a big pile for under $5. They work really well, I keep the lids on, snapped tight and they will hold to big rounds of my cheddar or blue without touching each other or the sides. I have recently found that because of our humidity here, thanks PAV, that I do need to open the lids and let the cheese breath since it is building up too much humidity in the containers. I do this once a day for about an hour. Also changing out the muslin I wrap each in to absorb moisture works well also, this is the first year I have had trouble with too much moisture even in the fridge. Oh and my fridge is nothing more than a dorm fridge my daughter took to college, they are little more than $100 new at walmart. It has a rack so I can put three containes on the bottom and two on the top, you are then only restricted to the size of the fridge you get on how many containers you can stack on the bottom and top, make sure they aren't too wide so your door closes well. I can fit 10 rounds of cheese at a time in mine which is more than enough for us and sales, and gives me plenty of time between batches to read PAV and learn more stuff to do for the next batches. When I get my soap room done a florist fridge is in my future. Vicki


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