Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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.