When to add oak?

[Smitty77]

just did my first racking and wanted to add a 6 oak spiral for 5 days but, have never done this before. Can I add it anytime? Do I need to sanatize it first? Best way to fish it out after 5 days?

 

[NorCal]

Are you saying a six inch spiral? In a 5 gallon carboy? I often add oak after the first racking. The spirals take 6 weeks for full, 2nd year barrel oak extraction in a 5 gallon volume.

I spray mine with starsan, as I do anything that touches the wine, post ferment. If you hold the carboy upside down and give it a few shakes, they will usually find their way out pretty quickly.

 

[Smitty77]

This is my 1st batch ever and made the Welch’s wine to get familiar with the process of wine making. Racked it after 5 days and it seems pretty good. Read an article to add oak so just got 2 6 inch spirals. I was going to just add one spiral (French medium roast) so I do not over do it. So you would leave it in for 6 weeks? It is a 3 gallon batch.

 

[cmason1957]

Not sure about how long to keep it in, never made Welches, but if you tie a fishing line to it and leave it hanging out the top, it is really easy to remove whenever you want to.

 

[NorCal]

I see oak as like adding salt to a steak. Some steaks are best with none, others a little will make it better, too much will make it worse.
I found that the “toast” has a big impact on the resulting taste profile. I use to get medium plus toast, but found the oak quickly dominated the taste of the wine. Some people love that, others (including me) found that it muted the fruit in the wine.
All that being said, I would taste it each week and pull it out when it has achieved your objective.