StillSmart

(pics taken down due to size)
carnt wait to try it ...... (but due to 12hr shifts i have to )
i bought it from a shop on ebay barrels-kegs $35 offer and $40 postage. (5L black hoop oak)

i designd the graphic on the front they put it on for me

ordered it on the 28/6 recieved it the 6/7 ... alot quicker then expected
the toasting on the inside looks good to me ..... but i didnt even know barrels were toasted until recently

Any chance you might post the URL for the ebay shop, to save the digging around FW

your wish is my command barrels-kegs

that is awesome mate.ima lil bit jelous.Looked around before on trademe here in NZ and one similar but 3L will cost me about $160NZD !!!!
Nice one.

That seems to be one of the main ways of getting barrels for the home/small maker doesn\'t it.
I\'ve been looking around for some time now but it seems that even finding used distillery barrels is hard work.
I did find a link to a company that deals in used Jack Daniels barrels except they were only interested in selling them by the container load.
I\'ve also found a timber yard locally, that buys in barrels from France, nominally to sell them off as water butts, but they did say they were happy to sell them \"as is\", from memory, they were about £80 or £90 a pop, which isn\'t bad, except they are \"industry standard\" size (about the 225 litre mark) also, they\'d been used for red wine so they didn\'t have too much of a toasting. Sure I\'d guess it\'s possible to get the top off and set about it with a blow torch, but then you\'d have to make sure that they were re-assembled correctly so as to be \"sound\" and not leak any liquid.
The up side would be that if toasted correctly, they\'d have been of good French oak so applying a nice subtle oaking and not quite as quick/harsh as American oak seems capable of......
So yes, it does seem that it\'s one of the best/easiest ways of getting hold of barrels of a practical size.....

Did find this site a while ago[url=www.woodbarrels.co.uk],if I had the money I would invest in one,think it would be good to fill one with whisky and put it away and forget about it for a year or so.

Ha ha! that\'s excellent optic, medium or high toast and everything.........
That\'d beat my 54 litre carboy and a couple of packs of oak chips hands down......

wow is all i can say!
I mixed up some ss top shelf superior white run and put it in the barrel a week ago (after prep'ing the barrel first), it tastes ace. All smokey and sweet. A lovely golden colour. I am very very pleased

you may wish to upgrade the wooden tap to a brass one before use, another $20-30 investment, save u alot of headaches

the tap works very well, it has a cork lining with a aluminium barel, i may upgrade at a later date but atm it works

this is the one ive got

Port Black Hoop Wine Barrel 4.5L, imported from the USA, recycled from the large barrels (was used in red wine, then brandy/cognac, then shaved, dewired and then rebuilt)
[url=http://www.onestopbarshop.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=1292]
i did have a wooden tap one, did my head in, massive mess, and was WAXED inside. so went shopping again, laughed at the stainless steel ones as they were pointless. This is the best i could find, there were the tubbies barrels but they seemed over priced and did the same thing. Steer clean of anything Chinese ......
but yeah, a little more involved in buying a barrel than first thought, the price is mainly in the oak, french oak is $$$ (to build the wine barrels from which these come from to memory costs about $3k, for which they get 3 years use out of them in the wine industry)

little update, i have to say wow what a difference a few weeks makes, it just gets better imho

Nice toy mate, When i have the time ill buy one. Untill then..enjoy the Rum!!!
BoR

just a little update, its on its 2nd filling, first was a white rum that i left to "age" .... tasted brill and i am out of it lol
the 2nd run i did with 40% neutral (after washing the barrel out with water) .... might be a personel thing but i like it .. alot!

may have to get annother