The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Oak Trials Continue

The oak trials continue!ย  All wines were stabilized and cleared about a week ago.ย  Today I’m racking them all, and the unoaked wine kit will be split into 1-gallon batches.ย  I had just under 6 full gallons after racking, so I used the little bit left over to top the pre-fermentation oak batches.ย  I realize this is yet another additional variable in the experiment, but the carboys only needed a few milliliters to top up.

I weighed out the oak chips into the one-gallon jugs before racking, then put airlocks on top of them all:ย  American oak at 5 grams and 10 grams per gallon, French oak at 5 grams and 10 grams per gallon, and one unoaked control.ย  Now they will hang out for 4 weeks and then get bottled.ย  Stay tuned!