Oaking the 2011s

Added oak to our wines; more specifically Hungarian oak.  We added in number of beans - 10 beans per gallon to most carboys, some as little as 5 beans per ballon.  Based on the leftovers from a 1-lb pack of beans I'd estimate we added about half of that recommended by StaVin (0.4 oz oak beans per gallon for new barrel equivalent).  That said we recall an oakey batch, so are playing it safe (since you can always add, but can't easily remove).

The Merlot got an additional 25 Hungarian oak beans (supplementing the previously added 15 American oak beans).   Tried one homemade wine where the winemaker used a blend of oaks and I thought it turned out pretty tasty.

Here's more detail on the why's behind each type of oak, and a handy number of cubes per ounce cheatsheet.