Red Head Barrels - 2 L Premium Distillery-Grade Oak Barrels for Aging Whiskey, Rum, and More, Ideal for Whiskey Barrel or Wine Barrel, American Charred Oak Barrel with 12-Page Cocktail Recipe Booklet

I'm only on my second day with water in it, but it has not leaked at all since about 30 minutes after I put the water in. Just filled up this morning with about five tablespoons of water, so clearly it is soaking up the water. Absolutely beautiful barrel, and super easy to put together. Looks very nice, and does not look tacky at all. If you get it and you are thinking it is way smaller than what you thought, you are correct. These are not massive barrels. Remember, you're only putting about two or three bottles of liquor in them. Definitely going to buy a few more.

good design,mine worked as designed only leaked for about eight hours then all sealed up.

Followed the directions and the barrel was water tight in less than 24 hours. Don’t be afraid to hammer the bung in fairly tight. I used a rubber hammer to make sure I didn't break anything. Now we wait for the result.🤞Edit and picture as the whiskey has been in the barrel for a couple weeks. All barrels will leak a little bit. This one, seems to be leaking just around the bung as you see in the picture. Hopefully, it doesn't affect the ability to use the spigot.

Barrel is nicer than my other barrel. Didn't leak. Spigot was defective but they quickly shipped another. Wood stand was cracked. Easily fixed with some wood glue.

Great craftsmanship!

I run a legal distillery and have used countless barrels. I bought this as a cool little treat to demonstrate to my family how the aging process works. I swelled the barrel and it held water just fine. Added white whiskey to it and we left it at my family's lake house to age for the summer. Well the barrel started leaking around the head and lost all the liqour within the first month. Which happens, if you catch the leak early enough you can correct it. But considering this was at a vacation home all had leaked out before we could correct it. My biggest issue is these a very poorly built. Both barrel heads warped very badly which i assume caused the leak. Also neither barrel heads are charred at all and alot of the staves had little to no char on them. So even if it did hold properly it would age poorly. Lastly the seller needs to make it clear that these barrels are vanrinished. Varnishing is good for barrels you want as decoration. But you do not want for barrels you are trying to age. It does not allow the barrel to breath properly and can leach varnish into your liqour. Anyway, if you are going to do home aging its worth paying extra to get a quality barrel.

The barrel is as advertised and does what you want it to do for a long time.First and foremost, follow the directions. Don't cut the water cycle down early just because you don't see any leaks. Be patient and let it sit for as long as the directions tell you.After the water cycle, I followed the recipe included with the barrel and started aging Old Fashioneds. Aging to taste, I found 15 days was my sweet spot. And they are excellent. I now keep a 3 gallon jug of old fashioneds on the shelf while I am continuously running the recipe through the barrel. I don't know how many times I've run the recipe but I've had the barrel for about a year. I went with a slightly higher proof whiskey because you are losing some vapors in the aging process.After a couple of months I had to extend how long I age them to 17 days because the effects do lessen after enough times through. But the result is still spectacular.I am picking up a second barrel now to start aging Campari and vermouth for use in Negronis and Boulevardiers. Have fun with your creativity. There are a lot more possibilities than found in the recipe book.

Super easy to follow instructions. I set it up with hot water in a shower stall while I was away for the weekend. Not sure if it leaked but shower stall was dry as a bone. Filled her up with bourbon and no issues with leaks at all. Really improved the flavor and smoothness of the bourbon. My only regret is getting a 2L cask for 1.5L of bourbon as I felt it limited me to adding the extras. For 1.5L of bourbon I should have gone with the 3L cask.