Adding bourbon oak cubes?

[Alphadawg]

Making a 6 gallon batch of Cabernet Sav. My glass carboy that I used for secondary only holds 5 gallons so I decided to take the extra gallon and put it on a 1 gallon carboy. I plan to try and simulate aging in a bourbon barrel. Bought some oak cubes and bourbon. How much oak? How much bourbon? How long should I keep it in the carboy? Thanks!

 

[ShadesManna]

I know nothing about barrel aging or getting that taste.

I do know adding bourbon to your wine will increase the alcohol content. When folks put wine in the used barrels, they're going for the added flavor, not the added alcohol content.

 

[Alphadawg]

Looking to add flavor. When I have done this with beer ( a delicious bourbon barrel porter) I used 2 oz of oak chips and about 10 oz of bourbon for a 5 gallon batch. Using oak cubes this time. I figure i can just use 1/5 of what I used with the beer.

Just hoping for some advice from someone who has done this

 

[Bocochoco]

Jack Daniels sells used barrel chips for smoking that are great for using this way

 

[mashpaddled]

Of the handful of bourbon barrel aged wines I've had the bourbon comes through unmistakably in the wine. I would shoot for similar volumes as people do in imperial stouts. You can always start with a small volume and add more; you can't take it back out.

 

[Alphadawg]

FYI: bottled this gallon wine experiment yesterday. Used only 2 oz. of bourbon and 7 small cubes of Hungarian oak. I wish we had used a little more. Next time I will try 3 oz. of bourbon and maybe 10 cubes of oak per gallon. Still tasted good and slightly different than the regular Cab it came from