> How often do people re-cooper their barrels. If you add oak chips do
> you also need to re-cooper your barrel(s)?

You don't have to treat the barrel any differently than you have been.
Just add the chips. If these are bigger barrels they make other
products you might be interested in too. They make a 'stave' that is
basically a strip of toasted oak and larger scale wineries like them
too. They aren't used in small lot winemaking much because the size
makes it tough to scale the right amount of oak.

I have used both Sta Vin beans and chips and side by side the Sta Vin
is a little better to my taste but the cost per gallon is several times
higher. Overall, it's nothing compared to a barrel though. It's hard
to describe but I think they a little less 'woody' than chips. I used
American oak at the same qty (by weight) on the same wine. (It could
have something to do with weighting it in all honesty, the Sta Vin is a
uniform size, the chips are not exactly uniform.) The difference was
slight to me, chips taste fine too. If I wasn't comparing them side by
side I doubt i would have had an opinion. I like a lot of oak so the
differences may be more pronouced if made differently to others too.

I don't care for the sawdust looking material although I am trying an
experiment with the dust put in right at fermentation. It didn't ruin
anything, I'm curious how it will end up. I did ruin one by adding too
much dust after fermentation. It became blending wine...

I like and use both chips and beans regularly.

Joe