First time oaking questions....

[chasemandingo]

Hey everyone,

Having been intrigued by the super sugar method and having never made a concord wine before I have endeavored to make this recipe. I only had the following on hand though. Three cans of Welch's Concord, one can of White Grape Raspberry, and one can of White grape cranberry. This turned into 1.5 gallons of must with sugar added to reach a gravity of 1.122. I was shooting for a lower SG since if it finishes around 14% it will end up around 1.015.(Didn't want it too sweet) And if it ferments dry I can always back sweeten. I am fermenting cold to maintain fruity qualities using RC212. Pitched yeast Monday morning and as of this morning I am at 1.06. I am going to transfer to primary around 1.04 and give it a few weeks to finish out. I plan on oaking this wine and have never oaked anything before. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on this front. How many ounces to oak a gallon? French or American? Don't say Hungarian because I do not have access to it at my local brew store lol. I plan on letting it sit a week and then tasting every few days until I like the flavor. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[seth8530]

First off, I would not transfer to a primary due to the high gravity of your wine. I would not risk interrupting fermentation. If you have some sort of nutrient on hand I would recommend you use it for this fermentation.

As far as oak... use Hungarian! Else wise it wont work. (not really) I like to use 3oz of oak cubes per 5 gallons as my starting point. so about half an oz per gallon roughly.. However, it is important to taste it from time to time ( more around the first 2 weeks) to get a feel for how the oak is coming along. I usually hear people recommending that you pull the oak once it is just beyond where you like it. Oak choice is really depends on what you are wanting to do with the wine.

 

[djrockinsteve]

I personally wouldn't oak a concord but it may taste good. Start off with maybe a half ounce by weight per gallon. Check in a week or two. You can always add more.

Usually the oak flavor is fully into the wine by a months time.

You will have to stir to blend all the oak flavor throughout. This can become a problem by adding O2 back into the carboy. Be sure to watch sulfite levels.

If you had a half gallon carboy you could experiment with that then oak the main carboy if you like the flavor.

I also don't shoot for high ABV on my fruitier wines. To each his own. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[chasemandingo]

Yes I know that a high ABV can overpower the fruit. I was attempting a variation of the "super sugar method" by jswordy. Fermentation has slowed considerably though. I was at 1.06 as of yesterday morning. This morning I am at 1.05. I have been fermenting at a rather low temp though. Probably around 60-65 degrees. So I added yeast energizer and nutrient and whipped O2 into the must this morning. Then I filled the sink with hot water and sat the primary bucket into it to raise the temp. I am hoping this will jumpstart the process.

 

[chasemandingo]

Well it has reached a gravity of 1.02. I aerated it and racked it into glass. It fit into a one gallon and a half gallon carboy both with too much head space. I plan on leaving them like this for a few days that using the half gallon to top up the gallon and racking the half into a 1.6 quart glass bottle I have on hand.

 

[jswordy]

My super sugar method defies almost all of the conventional wisdom on this site, so you'll have to learn a different way of thinking about how yeast live to do it. Yet the early secondary part of the method has been used commercially for fruit wines of all kinds for a long time, and even some home recipes include it.

You are transferring way lower (drier) than I did, so you'll get a different kind of wine than I did. (I won't go into the intricacies of what happens to yeast when it goes anaerobic in secondary - I have made posts about it often before here). Actually, the idea behind the super sugar method is to leave behind residual sugar when the process is finished.

I oak my Welch's all the time. I use spirolls in the secondary. Start with 3 days and check every few days to see if the oak flavor is to your liking. It does add an element to the wine. But it is also easy to over-oak it, so check often by taking a little sip.

Next time you make it, add 3 ounces oak chips to your primary (5 gallons). That will suffice for the duration of the process, then.

There is almost no way to overpower Welch's if you added enough concentrate at the beginning. Next time, try going strictly by the recipe and keep some bottles for 6 months to age. This will give you a benchmark from which to do your own thing. The longer a so called "high-alcohol" wine ages, the more the alcohol's sharpness rounds off and the more the fruit comes forward.

Kudos for being adventurous!

 

[chasemandingo]

Thanks for the compliment Wordy. I will definitely try your method and follow the recipe religiously when I do. I just know that I don't like wines around 1.03-1.04 unless it's at least 20%. (A.K.A. Port) That is why I was thinking that it would end around 1.015 and around 14.5 % or so. But I will try it your way and see what I think lol. If you transfer to secondary at 1.05 what is the average gravity that you end at?