5 Liter Golden Oak Barrel - Brass Steel | DIGITAL COPY 30 page Aging Guide | Paper Funnel | No Leaks Guarantee

While following the provided instructions, I partially filled the barrel as directed. Leaks were evident a minute or so later between the staves and under the metal bands on each end. As directed I kept the barrel partially filled waiting for the wood to expand and seal. What leaked over the next three days was blackish and stained the barrel underneath the varnish and the stand it came with.I called their phone support line (602-565-5657) as after three days there should have been some improvement, but it kept leaking. The phone support line went directly to voicemail and said that voicemails would be checked twice a day. I left a message with my phone number and email address and was told that I should receive a response shortly. No response.Two days later, with the barrel now still leaking after five days, I sent an email to Golden Oak support (support@goldenoakbarrel.com). I sent several pictures of the barrel, the leaks and asked what I should do. No response.Two days later, I responded to an automated email from Amazon asking me if I was satisfied with the barrel and if not to reply to the email. I replied to the email with the same information I sent in the email to support.*UPDATED* As of two weeks later, still no response.I understand that these types of handcrafted items can include flaws and frankly, I'm not surprised about that. It is to be expected with such a product. However, the makers of the barrels should also understand this and work to first limit the number of barrels that have leaks and then, more importantly, be ready and able to help out customers who have issues with their product.I bought the item to showcase some of the neat things you can do in a wedding ceremony and wanted to encourage clients to purchase barrels for whiskey, beer and wine ceremonies. However, with these types of quality issues and lack of response I would discourage anyone from attempting to buy a barrel from this manufacturer unless they do so several months in advance to work out any potential issues. That is *assuming* they eventually make this right. You just can't have these types of quality and customer service issues from a wedding product that you expect to work as anticipated on your big day.

I honestly have no idea why there are so many good reviews for this product. I was really, really excited to receive this and I really, really wanted to like it. Why am I disappointed? This thing REEKS of wood glue or some other form of adhesive. The thing stinks ... bad. It's either some sort of either bonding adhesive or possibly wood stain/laquer that there is absolutely no way I would use it to age any form of alcohol. When sniffing the hole to the inside of the barrel it is obvious the fumes are inside of it. Alcohol is a solvent. Storing alcohol in this thing would absolutely pull all those chemicals into a solution and now we are going to drink the stuff? No thanks. I returned it. As an example of just how bad it was, when returning the product I left it in my car while at work with plans of returning it after I got off. When returning to my car, it smelled so bad of chemicals I had to roll the windows completely down. Unbelievable... for a product that is made with the intent of aging alcohol. Guess I'll drink my whiskey straight away because I'm definitely not using this thing to age it!

Would not recommend. Followed the directions thoroughly, cured for 3 days before filling and had filled in any spots that previously leaked water, using the provided wax. My entire batch of bitters is ruined as the glue(?) seems to have seaped into the barrel’s contents. Really disappointed, as this is a long and invested process. The leaking started about 3 weeks into the barrel being filled with the alcohol-based bitters. Its not even leaking from the places it did before. If you note the photos I attached, its coming from around the spout (which is closed) and around the back where the flat wood joins to the curved wood. I should have known this was poorly crafted when the metal ring fell right off when handled early on.PS: I wouldnt mind a refund, especially since im out $60 worth of bitters materials, not including the barrel.

After purchasing I prepped as instructed and even watch the videos recommend buy the sellerOther review had me concerned about the performance of the product, so after prepping and adding about 1200 mls of whisky I kept it in a shallow pan to see if it leaked. First month (June) no issues, so I decided to move it out of the pan and onto the bar top, at this time I noticed the center stave had a noticeable crack in it bit nothing was leakingI kept a sponge below the spigot for the next two months and no issues, I removed the sponge and the plan was not to disturb this for a year. Over the next month or two I checked it very infrequently. In early December my wife told me the bar was wet, I checked it out and the valve was leaking. I cleaned up and uncorked the barrel to empty it. I recovered a litle over 400 ml, even with absorption rates I shouldn’t have lost 800ml so the majority did leach out.I tried to contact the seller (twice) but have not heard anything back from them on this.This product looks great but other than its looks I would not recommend putting this into use

Super disappointed, followed the instructions exactly, but the wood in the dispenser cracked after aging for 3 weeks and leaked everywhere. I was looking forward to sharing some barrel aged old fashions for a holiday family gathering and it didn't work out because the product was defective and there was no saving it. Not only am I out the money for the barrel, but the expense for the ingredients I was aging too.