Wine Cooler - For Cheese Cave

[Jessica_H]

Would someone be willing to take a look at the link below and tell me if this would be an acceptable container for a "cheese cave"?
http://www.winecoolerexpert.com/magic-chef-wine-coolers.html

I'm following a lot of instructions that are from the basic cheese kit at cheesemaking.com.  I thought (I don't have the book in front of me) that just aging cheese in my basement would be ok.  It has a constant temp of about 55 degrees and humidity about the same.  But now I'm reading more and it looks like the humidity should be higher for aging...more like 85%?

There's a cheap Magic Chef 16 bottle wine cooler on Craigslist right now that I'd like to buy if it will work.

[zenith1]

Hi Jessica- If you have a basement that stays at a constant 50-55 degrees I would use that and spare the expense of the wine refrigerator. You are correct about the humidity. So why not see if you can obtain a Rubbermaid type plastic storage container, line the bottom with draining mat, and add a small bowl of water to raise the humidity. You can always adjust the lid to maintain a level of humidity that you want. Or get creative and drill some holes in the top that you can cover and uncover to suit your humidity requirements. You will just have to watch the temperature- you don't want it higher than what you have stated that you have.

[spalko]

Years ago I aged my first cheeses with a wine chiller unit and a humidifier.
The two units "argued" with each other.
Keep in mind that your traditional "cooling units" cool by removing all the humidity from the air and using that to cool with.

So... single most important piece of aging equipment you can buy is one of those thermometers that monitors not only your current temp and humidity, but also records your high and low for each over the last 24 hrs.
This is important to know due to the fluxuation (which you want to be minimal).

I "thought" the unit I had was doing a great job (periodic humidity 80-86%)... but when it drops to as low as 55% and you aren't even aware of it, it totally affects the cheese.
The more consistant your humidity, the more consistant your cheese.

That's a long answer to your question, but I wouldn't waste my money on such a unit... I'd attempt to rig up something that would maintain a higher and more constant humidity.

[steampwr8]

The comments made are true, but are easily overcome. And these units go for less than $70 in my area on Craig's List. I have a 30 bottle Magic Chef and two 8 bottle table top wine coolers that I bought the same way. I have $175.00 invested in all 3 tops. They work great for small batches that we do as weekend warriors to practice with. I use them for curing salami and pepperoni also.

As mentioned invest in a good temperature and humidity sensor/gauge. But the temp is a fairly constant 55 degrees and can go as low as 45 degrees, and a table top humidifier $5.00, will take care of the humidity level.

See my post at http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5762.0.html. The little blue unit is a humidifier.

Great to work with as a starter cave with little investment. Buy used though. Most wine enthusiasts can't keep them full and sell them cheap.

[gianaclis]

Our first aging fridge was a wine cooler (a cheapy from Home Depot) that worked great and is now still in use (7 years later) as, you guessed, a wine cooler. :-)  Instead of a humidifier, I just hung damp terry cloth towels from the bottom shelf.  And definitely, use a humidity temp gauge.
gianaclis

[smilingcalico]

I would say just use your basement and get a humidifier, unless you use your basement for other things (the environment will encourage molds to grow on everything). Otherwise, the above suggestions are all good solutions.

[Jessica_H]

Well, I decided to get the cooler anyway.  It was a steal and I figured I could use it for wine if it didn't work for cheese.  We're doing a little construction in our basement right now so I do worry about dust and such.

We'll see how it goes