# Oak or not to oak



## SouthernMan (Sep 17, 2008)

I have a 5 gallon batch of banana wine in the secondary and it won't be very long before it has fermented dry. After the wine clears, I was thinking about bulk aging the wine for a couple of months with Stavin Hungarian oak cubes and then rack the wine off the cubes and let it continue to age for a year before bottling the wine. Nothing is set in stone right now, because I want to get some input from everyone if I should oak the banana or not.


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## Wade E (Sep 17, 2008)

Oaking any wine is personal preference. I have never had Banana wine so cant possibly know what it tastes like but can imagine a light hungarian oak in there. Just make sure you add k-meta every 3-4 months.


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## Bert (Sep 17, 2008)

Heavy flavored fruit wines do well with added oak flavor, but lite flavored fruit wines tend to get over powered by the oak flavor......But you will be the judge of that...To oak or not is more a personal option....Good luck..


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## SouthernMan (Sep 17, 2008)

Thanks for the input




Actually, this is my first time in making banana wine, so I wasn't too sure if I should add the oak or not. All the other fruit wines that I've made in the past, I've added oak and they all benefited from it. I've got a little more time to make up my mind whether I'm going to do it or not.


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## Wade E (Sep 17, 2008)

Maybe split it up at oaking time and do a test run of each.


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## u01dtj6 (Jun 11, 2009)

Hi wade,


Can I ask what k-meta is? I've heard of it, but think they call it something else here in the UK. Googled it, but to no advantage.


Thanks


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## IQwine (Jun 11, 2009)

*Potassium metabisulfite*


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