Craft Series

Have had four good barrels (a 2L and 3 5Ls). Make sure you prep it when you receive it! I see some people complaining about leaky barrels, and I'm sure it happens, but so far we've had no problems at all. I bought the barrel wax, but so far it's completely wasted. Just make sure that when you get it you put the spout in (and make sure it's closed, far left or right), then fill the keg with boiling water and put the top cork in! This is 'tempering' and will make the oak swell to prevent leaks. If it's leaking after a couple hours (when the wood has had time to swell) then it's time to deploy the barrel wax. If that still doesn't work you might have a bad keg (hasn't happened with these for me, cross fingers). Then when you're ready to use it (after at least a day tempering), remove the spout, pop the top cork, then flip it upside down and let it drain from the 'top', just because that has a larger hole. There will be a lot of charred oak shards, which is fine! This just shows your good stuff is in contact with charred wood. If you go a long time before you use it again and the inside dries out, you might consider re-tempering it before you use it.

OK, here’s something. Everyone should know this is a pretty great product in order for it to work. You have to do two things first step one immerse the entire barrel and water for one hour. If you wanna make sure it doesn’t leak allow two hours soak time once you’ve soaked it rinse it. It is already got a wonderful oak smell, and in order to make the wine more delicious so the recommendation is don’t spoil the gift. I’ve heard other people complain about this product but likely they didn’t pre-soak the barrel for lengthy enough time in order for the wood to expand, and or they got the product and allowed it to sit without anything inside of it for too long a time, allowing the barrel to dry out it is important not to allow the barrel to dry out as it will shrink. If the barrel has left too long with nothing inside of it, this will cause it to shrink. The barrel is meant always to have liquid inside of it and the barrel is meant to swell with wine this tightening the rings and preventing leakage. The product is for wine and Brandy whiskey or what other beverages are placed inside I got my barrel for wine making I tested it filled with water. Let it soak or sit there for almost 5 hours when I was sure it would not leak. I filled it with wine. It has been a day and 1/2 and there are zero leaks so I wanted to come and I wanted to leave this review for anyone who is considering this product first also you should know that this is a test barrel. This is not a full-size wine barrel. It is a test barrel to taste a little bit of the product without having to get air in a larger Batch. so for anyone who’s considering this product I would say it’s a definite buy. Also I would recommend pre-soaking test of just water before you put any of your favorite drink inside. If it doesn’t spill out within 24 hours you did it right I think it’s a fantastic product would like morehand crafted products like this. Its durable rusticly charming. Great for small batches of sample wine. as far as the Spicket goes, make sure that it is tightly turned and tightly closed, and there should be no leaking once I adjusted the Spicket. There was no leaks at all something to be aware of double check after using it that you’ve returned the Spicket or return the nozzle so that is closed and you won’t have any leaks. I waited 24 hours I checked again. There were no leaks Spicket completely dry so this is why I’m recommending. Don’t miss out on this product. It’s a good product.

The size was bigger than I had envisioned but actually turned out to be perfect. I aged Reposado Tequila in this barrel and drew a shot out after 4 weeks and wow it was Anejo good. After 8 weeks Anejo plus almost to smooth. Lots of oak and molasses with a hint of smokey tones. Make sure you follow the directions to get your barrel cured and sealed up. I had no leaks the barrel rings did tighten as the barrel swelled. I followed the instructions and it worked out great for us.

Extremely low quality. The thing leaked unbelievably bad leaving charcoal stains all over it took so much wax to stop the leaking. Also the stand in the picture is not the one included you get some cheap Lincoln log type deal. I originally ordered two but they sent me two different ones. One was as advertised the other one had 12 nails in it even though these are described as all oak barrels are supposed to be as having no glue and no nails. I reached out to customer support multiple times and called them multiple times and left multiple messages no response whatsoever. Just wanted to clarify if the nails were decorative or if they actually punctured the staves into the barrel but apparently customer service is non-existent with thousand oaks barrels. For the price it's a terrible ripoff. It took days and tons of wax to stop leaking and as mentioned before I left horrible staining on both barrels. I wish I could return both but since technically there's nothing wrong with one of them I'm going to do the right thing and keep it but not happy about it. For the price you can find a much better one I highly recommend redhead barrels, they're the best I've used so far and I've used a lot. Besides the cheap quality and extremely leaking problems the severe lack of any type of customer service is definitely a no-go for me so if you do get one you better pray you don't have a problem with the spicket bung or severe leaking because you'll be Sol. I beg you to hear my warning and read all the reviews and if you still decide to go with this cheap recycled garbage I suggest not even suggest it's absolutely necessary you buy the barrel wax because you're going to need it. Lesson learned never again. I can't comment on any other properties of this barrel other than they sent the wrong item. False advertisement, loaded with nails which any distiller will tell you was a major problem with spirits. In the complete and total lack of any type of customer service whatsoever makes this company a major fail in my eyes two thumbs way down, update the other one would not stop leaking either so ended up returning both. There are of horrible quality. Every time I thought it had stopped leaking there'd be another puddle in the morning of black charcoal water. By the time I had had enough the whole barrel was black with charcoal water and almost entirely made of wax. What a piece of junk. I wouldn't even consider this. Read everybody else's bad reviews as well, this thing sucks

Run away. I received 2 x 1ltr casks. The spigot are proven not working as they use cheap glue to fix the wood part with the metallic part. I had to spend USD10 to buy proper epoxy and do their job. Their only solution ... = Nothing. Cause they can't see my order. Poor kiddo!!! Can trust these people!!!

As advertised...nice little unit and am currently "ageing" some homemade shine..decent delivery time

Angeboten wird hier ein 5 Liter Fass. Auf dem gelieferten Produkt klebt die Information "5 Liter/ 1 Gallone". 1 Gallone entspicht aber nicht 5 Liter! Das Volumen des Fass entspricht auch definitiv nicht einem 5 Liter Fass sondern eher 1 Gallone.

Barrel looks great but even after pre soaking for 4 days the tap leaks badly and the stand is just plywood.

I keep it in water like all the reviews said. The water turned purple and stinky and the metal parts started peeling off. It was so stinking that I had to throw it away