Does anyone have any opinions or input for how many medium toasted oak staves to put in a 5 gal barrel? I'm mostly thinking of cabernet but I would like to hear input for other wines as well. I'm considering again in 5 gal oak barrels but I'm thinking of using used barrels so I can control the oakiness a little better. I'm concerned about getting over oaked in a new barrel. I want to keep the wine in the barrel for most of the aging though so that's why I'm thinking I use a used barrel, put a stave in and when it's oaked enough I just pull the stave out or maybe don't need to pull the stave out. I'm concerned if I use a brand new barrel I will get too much oak too fast and then have to remove the wine from the barrel altogether when I actually want it still aging in the barrel.