cpfan
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NS:Steve, I just opened it to answer your questions. It comes with Lalvin EC-118 and several oak packages (30g of french medium oak chips, 30g of french heavy oak chips, and 100 g of european oak cubes). It also has a grape skins kit and the usual fining agents and sulfites.
What are your thoughts about using all the oak and the yeast that came with it?
NS
For our tastes (my wife and I), that's a lot of oak. Remember we're not Cab Sauv drinkers. But if you like oak, I would suggest putting the chips in the primary, and the cubes in the carboy (but not for too long).
I have only made one Cellar Craft kit and it also came with EC-1118. The only manufacturer that seems to provide a variety of yeasts with their kits is Winexpert (although Vineco uses RC-212 and K1-V1116 with a couple of kits). Spagnols uses EC-1118 only. If Cellar Craft only uses EC-1118, I would consider changing the yeast. But be careful with yeast choice and probably should add some yeast nutrient/energizer. Maybe the first time you should snot change the yeast.
BTW, whenever I get a kit I ALWAYS open the box to check the contents. I want to know if anything is missing or damaged NOW, not when I am trying to start the kit. Once I got a Vineco kit that the Isinglass had leaked and the whole additive package was a mess. Also it allows me to think about some of the contents (eg elderflowers, elderberries, lots of oak, no oak, ...).
Steve
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