Beer Forum

Has anyone ever ordered barrels from Online Barrels & Kegs? $155 shipped for a new barrel is pretty inexpensive. I asked, and they can send it without the spigot. I could also get it engraved for free (so that's cool). I'm curious if anyone has experience with them though? It is much cheaper than the $300 shipped for the Vadai Hungarian Oak with a stand over at MoreWine. I've been wanting one to age a wine (or 2-3) in, then some clean beers, and then to go sour with it. So thoughts?

Alright so I'd never heard of them so I don't know how much help I could be, but I looked around and I saw one review that gave them one star for leaving a lot of important things out of the package (bung stopper, spigot, etc).

I also worry about using cheap wood - I'm not saying you're going to get sick or anything, but if they're charging that little for it it's probably a bad wood, a bad lacquer, or both. (Ever seen a cheap guitar and how bad the body and finish look? Same thing.) If you do order from this place you might want to consider doing a second lacquer job or something to prevent the wood and/or cheap lacquer from introducing any impurities or weird flavor inconsistencies into the beer, especially if you're going to be using it as an aging platform.

These almost look like they're more for decoration - I had a friend who had a Viking-themed wedding last year (it was like a GoT nightmare, don't ask ) and he would have loved one.

So I got it in. It's definitely not as high quality as larger barrels I usually see, but it's not horrible. I've waxed it and have it sitting with storage solution. I'm going to put a wine in it first before a Brett saison. I'll have to wait to see, but I think it'll be worth the money.

Just an update that the wine is in the barrel. I'll let you guys know how it tastes and how the saison does. No leaking at least.