Is this just bulk aging in a secondary after racking off the lees? Part of me already wants to toss the oak chips and replace with cubes and let it sit in the carboy for a good 6 months as I have bias against chips.
Is there thoughts on adding oxygen by injection at the onset of fermentation and if so, how long do I hit it for (ie I give my wort 45 seconds or so of pure O2) or is splashing plenty?
Benefit of letting it ferment out in the primary and then racking to secondary or is it best to transfer when around 2/3 done fermenting?
Thanks for the thoughts, these are just the questions that are popping into my head as I'm reading up on this.
Most of the cheaper kits have sawdust, added to primary, for their "oaking", but the better kits come with oak spirals for aging later on. You can oxygenate for 30 seconds, but splashing to aerate works too. Since you add some water, and it's unboiled, there is more oxygen present than in wort, but adding o2 is good as well.
You normally rack wine when it's 1.010-1.020, but the kits are usually different and have you rack when it's finished at under 1.000.
For example, when I make wine out of grapes, I don't airlock my primary and stir daily. When fermentation slows, I rack to secondary at 1.010 or so and airlock. The wine kits have you airlock at the beginning, but using an ale pail is fine, and then rack to secondary when fermentation is done. In this case, following their directions are the correct things to do for those kits. They have the right instructions for their kits, and they have certain ingredients such as wine skins or things that I don't normally use in my wines (since I ferment a bit before pressing) and I've never gone wrong with following the directions in the better kits.
We drank a wine with dinner tonight that was a cheap kit. I mean, CHEAP. I found it in our local Dollar Store/Liquidators store. It was $20, including corks. Well, I had a coupon besides so it was $12. Ok, I had to!
It was actually pretty decent! Not complex, but for 40 cents a bottle it was really good- better than 2buck Chuck for sure. It was this kit:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ELJK6E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Now, it wasn't fine wine. But it was more than drinkable.
I've also done some $175+ kits. And the wine was outstanding.
With wine kits, you really do get what you pay for. The cheaper kits have less complexity, more juice concentrate, no grape skins, no oak, etc. while the better kits have more juice and no to low-concentrate, oak spirals or cubes, grape skins, dried elderberries (for tannin, I presume), etc.
I like having both types on hand. One is an everyday drinker like $2 chuck, and the other is more like a $25 bottle of wine for dinner.
Either way, the instructions with the kits are very good. If you're thinking of using oak cubes in a kit, make sure the wine is good enough to stand up to the depth of flavor oak cubes will provide. Otherwise, it could be overly tannic in the end.