wrote:

>
>
> There are a bunch of choices for adding a bit of
> oak to wines and meads, such as barrels, cubes,
> chips, liquid essence, and powder. There are
> also numerous choices in oak varieties, such as
> French, Hungarian, and American.
>
> I'm curious what are the favorite methods
> employed by members of this forum. How do you
> prefer to age with oak and what variety do you
> like the best.
>
> From my wine tasting ventures, I've gotten
> pretty good at picking out wines that are aged
> on American oak. It has what I can only describe
> as a "sharper" oak flavor. It seems that the
> Australians are still fond of American oak, but
> winemakers elsewhere tend to go with French or
> Hungarian oak; these varieties have a much
> "rounder" flavor. Even in Missouri, they don't
> age on much American oak, and that's where much
> of the American oak comes from.
>
> I've been aging on a mix of oak varieties in
> chip and cube form. I'm still focusing on other
> aspects of winemaking so I haven't given oak too
> much thought.
>
> I think I'm starting to get ahead of the MI5
> Persecution guy. :-)
>
> Greg

I recently have tried one of the "Oak Spirals".

https://www.thebarrelmill.com/faq.html

It seems to be doing a VERY good job (French oak).
I am using one of the spirals that is suppose to
be good for three gallons of wine but I am using
it in a 15 gallon demijohn. I am using another
one in a spent 10 gallon barrel. It seems to be
imparting enough oak for me. The thing about the
spirals is that they will impart the oak very
fast as they say in their advertisement. For the
barrel, I screwed a stainless steel hook into the
bottom of the silicon bung and used a thin piece
of stainless steel wire to attach the spiral to
the hook on the bung. This way, I can remove the
spiral anytime I want.