Oaking

Well, the ones I always get from Wine making stores, they say to soak for 12 hours in water. Which I do, then drain, and dump the suckers in.

DAve

MLynchLtd wrote:

This is largely a matter of personal preference. Some just add the oak chips without any special preperation, others boil them, while still others sanitize them with a sulfite solution.

The downside to boiling or soaking is that the chips don't add as much flavor since some flavor is lost by taking these steps. The downside to just throwing them in is a slight risk of contamination of your must/wine.

I generally sanitize them with a sulfite solution, but again, this is just my personal preference.

Greg

First I would ask why you are adding oak chips to a blueberry wine. My goal, when making a fruit wine, is to preserve the natural fruit flavors of the berries being used. Adding oak to blueberry wine will make the wine taste less like blueberries.

But if you insist, just add the chips to your wine. There is no reason to rinse or sanitize the chips as long as you manage your SO2 levels and have your PH adjusted correctly.

This wine dried out nicely, and when it matured it tasted more like a noble grape wine than a fruit wine. The fruit notes are there, but the overall impression is more of a cab sav, or spicy pinot noir. I made up two 1 gal batches of it, trying out two different kinds of yeast, and I think I'll further sub-divide them into 1/2 gal and add oak to half. This is essentially an experimental batch, I want to try out all variations so i can find my favorite before I make big batch. I think a tea addition for tannins will be next, and maybe a combo of them all. (it's going to be years before I make a big batch of this stuff!)

mike

Mike,

I rinse them first especially on a white; you are not doing that. I would never boil unless you want to use the 'tea' created. That is where most of the flavor would be. I would go easy on yours, maybe add 1 ounce per 5 gallons wait a week, see if you need more. I usually use around 1 ounce per gallon on a red, 1/4 of that on a white. I do oak rose, fruit and sweet wines but a lesser rates than i would for dry wines. I just like oak. You don't necessarily have to follow any style guidelines, it's your wine.

Joe

You left out my personal favorite: steaming.

I put them in a big strainer, put a lid over that, and boil water beneath them. It saturates in wet heat without having as much liquid to carry off my oak.

hawk