Oak chips

[meddyliol]

I started my first WoW yesterday but made the mistake of using yeast which was past its sell by date and nothing is happening. I just bought some yeast from Wilko's and hope this works. I have some oak chips which was unused from a wine kit. Is it worth putting them in? if so, when is the best time, at the start or later on. The wow is WGJ and Orange juice.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Chippy_Tea]

As its your first wow i would follow the recipe and see how it turns out, if it is not to your liking then you can experiment , if you change it now you will not know how good/bad the original one was and when you make the next one you will not know if it is better or worse than the original.

If you want to look through some recipes members have posted have a look at this thread - viewtopic.php?f=41&t=39846

 

[meddyliol]

Thanks for your answer, there some good variants there. My wine is now going like a good 'un after only 1 hour. :thumb:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Let us know how you get on.

If its the orange version you are making don't be put off wow's if you are not overly impressed, the orange version is the leasts favourite of all the wow's i have made, i suppose its like Marmite some love it others don't.

My currently favourite is apple, raspberry and white grape juice, its 100% juice from Tesco. :thumb:

 

[meddyliol]

Thank you. The apple, raspberry and white grape juice sounds interesting. Is that a litre of each?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Thank you. The apple, raspberry and white grape juice sounds interesting. Is that a litre of each?

I always use 1 litre of white grape juice and 1 litre of any other juice if it is 100% juice, a lot of the supermarket juice drinks are less than 50% juice so if i use these i put in two litres and 1 litre of WGJ.

This is the one i am using now.

ingredients

Apple Juice (91%),Raspberry Purée (9%) ,Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid) ,Vitamin C

 

[meddyliol]

I've just bought an Apple & Raspberry from Sainsbury's. It's 88% apple, 5% raspberry puree. It also has grape juice, elderberry & Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid) ,Vitamin C. I will do that with a lire of grape juice and see what happens.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I routinely use oak chips during fermentation and maturation and it always produces a a smoother result.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

So putting them in during fermentation is okay?

The reason I ask is because I have 2 x 5 gallons of elderberry wine going at the moment and 2 sachets of oak chips. I won't mature the elderberry wine in the 5 gallon fermenter as it has too much headspace, so I'll split it up over 10 DJs.

If I can add the oak now, then that'll work nicely :)

 

[Mikeymu]

I am doing an experiment using Youngs oak chips at the moment. Having purchased a 30g pack I divided it up into 1 teaspoon packets - which gave 25 packets. The idea is that I add a 1 teaspoon packet to a gallon of elderberry wine (14% abv) and rack off after a week then taste. I did that once but just now I added another pack and will repeat until the preferred oak level is reached.

I imagine that it's a matter of simple maths that since the 30g packet is for a 5 gallon new must (which might start at 0% and go to 12 or 14%) then you'd imagine that for 1 gallon which was fully fermented you'd need less than 6g per gallon and this would (or wood sorry) be because higher alcohol levels mean flavour is taken up quicker.

Thing I don't know, as i have only a little experience, is how the flavours from the oak change over time. For example I plan to bottle this wine when it's two years old. If I get the oak level right for now, will it be still alright in two years?

 

[tonyhibbett]

I routinely use oak chips both in fermentation and maturation. I am so pleased with the results that I am now buying oak barrels and getting even better results, albeit at great initial cost. Part of the benefit is contact with oak, but probably the greater benefit is the slow breathing that occurs during maturation. Lots of commercially produced wine never sees the inside of a barrel these days, just stainless steel. This was part of the problem with beer that started the CAMRA movement. It is interesting that Scotch whiskey producers are now interested in small oak barrels.

 

[Mikeymu]

I wonder, can anyone give details of the quantities of oak chips they've used (per gallon) and for how many days they were in there for to help us newbies?

 

[tonyhibbett]

To simulate the equivalent of contact with oak in a barrel, both during fermentation and maturation, would require very large doses of oak chips. Most commercial wine these days never sees the inside of a barrel anyway and most kits don't include oak chips either.
Much depends on the style of wine being produced and personal taste, but as a general rule, a few grams of chips per gallon of light white wine during fermentation will have a subtle smoothing effect without affecting the flavour as such, whereas a full bodied red would require considerably more for the effect to be evident.
If you want the full benefit of oak, you need a new oak barrel, but at £95 for a 20 litre one, this is clearly a luxury which could prove difficult to justify in the short term and may well not be required to produce good quality red wine from good quality kits. I am only using them to mature wine made from my own fresh grapes, which is a different ball game altogether!