Wedding Party Bottles

[oksofar]

I made a few of these personalized wedding party hooch bottles for my nephew’s upcoming nuptials . Small 200ml bottles, adhesive kraft label sheets and a 3D stamp (all from Amazon). I found re-production "tax stamp" cap labels on E-Bay to add to the effect. The spirit is made from sugar wash, distilled twice (AirStill) and filtered through a Britta – it tastes as clean as Tito’s (ok, almost)! I’m having fun with my simple setup, and I know the labels will be a memorable hit at the wedding reception.
(Pics removed due to metadata)

[SnowJeeper]

Those look amazing! Nice work.

I especially love the tax sticker.

[cob]

Nice job looks really good.

Get rid of the brita.

[Twisted Brick]

Small 200ml bottles, adhesive kraft label sheets and a 3D stamp (all from Amazon). I found re-production "tax stamp" cap labels on E-Bay to add to the effect.

Excellent stuff, oksofar. I'm on it!

[oksofar]

Discrete (wedding was 4 states away) and fun... it was a hit!
I made personalized bottles for members of the wedding party, a 1.3 gallon keg, and a bunch of "Not Purell" bottles (new, never having been filled before).

[rubberduck71]

Very cool! Where did you get the barrel made?

[oksofar]

Very cool! Where did you get the barrel made?

Barrel is a 1.3 gallon from Barrelsonline.com. Great personalization, but I may go to a different vendor for a more serious aging barrel next time.

[BamaHawk]

Great looking barrel and hooch bottles. My son is getting married in April and I would love to do these for him but I will be flying in to the wedding so I don't think that will be realistic. Neat idea though!

[BamaHawk]

So you're not happy with the aging quality of the barrel from barrelsonline.com? I have one on order and it was recommended to me as a decent barrel for aging purposes. What do you feel is unsatisfactory about them?

[rubberduck71]

I have 2 from that site. They're both 2L capacity. No problems so far, but I think there's better quality out there in internet land, albeit at higher price point.

[wpkluck]

Barrel is a 1.3 gallon from Barrelsonline.com. Great personalization, but I may go to a different vendor for a more serious aging barrel next time.

My experience from that vendor was far from great. Yes, it’s probably a functional barrel, although after two weeks in water, it still leaks. The worst part is, that it looks horrible. I asked for a varnished barrel, but the varnish washes off with water. And there are so many dings and hammer marks in the rings, not just rustic, not industrial, looks horrible.

And on top of that, their customer service was horrible! Very reluctant to ever admit there is even a defect, they eventually admitted that they couldn’t even find one barrel in their inventory that was acceptable.

I would suggest avoiding this vendor all together. If not for the bad product, because I’m sure they eventually ship something good to someone, for the bad customer service!

[rubberduck71]

wp, I saw your pics on that other thread. Definitely sub-par! And it's worrisome that you had to argue the case with them...

Like I said above, I have 2 barrels from them and a 3rd on the way. I'm hoping that it was just a one-off situation on your barrel. I've not had any leaking issues, but I may look to another site for future purchases.

Duck

[wpkluck]

wp, I saw your pics on that other thread. Definitely sub-par! And it's worrisome that you had to argue the case with them...

Like I said above, I have 2 barrels from them and a 3rd on the way. I'm hoping that it was just a one-off situation on your barrel. I've not had any leaking issues, but I may look to another site for future purchases.

Duck

Duck, I tried to work with them. After all of their quibbling, I asked them to send me some pictures of some of the stuff they had in inventory, to see if any were acceptable. They wouldn’t send any pictures, and said that my barrel was standard. They all look like that. Certainly nothing they’ll put in the marketing brochure!

[Irishgnome]

I have barrels from Barrelsonline.com. Never had an issue and I have recommended to several local stillers, as well as some on the forum. I have never heard about issues with them.
I have had a few conversations with the owner and have enjoyed talking with him.

Irish

[oksofar]

Great looking barrel and hooch bottles. My son is getting married in April and I would love to do these for him but I will be flying in to the wedding so I don't think that will be realistic. Neat idea though!

Yep, not the sort of thing you can bring on the plane. I elected to drive the 850 miles.

[oksofar]

I did not think that this was relevant at first, but here’s the reason I would choose a different vendor for a “more serious aging barrel” than barrelsonline.com:
The personalized wedding gift barrel of Bourbon had to be presented empty. I could simply not get the barrel to seal. The problem was a cracked stave – not a seam between staves – where water would literally spray out when I pushed in the bung.
I can report acceptable customer support. After sending pics of the crack, the vendor immediately agreed to replace the barrel. Regrettably, not in time for the wedding (in fact, not shipping to me until 3/12/2021).
Final thoughts: the barrel shipped from Mexico! That has me wondering if my hooch could really be considered “Bourbon”, which requires aging in new charred AMERICAN white oak.
That said, the barrel appears to be well made (despite the crack), and the personalization was nicely done.

[BamaHawk]

the barrel shipped from Mexico! That has me wondering if my hooch could really be considered “Bourbon”, which requires aging in new charred AMERICAN white oak.

From what I understand, the wood used is American White Oak but the cooperage is in Mexico. Understandable concern though.

[Irishgnome]

It is American quarter sawn white oak. I had the same question my self, which is why I started communicating with the owner. They source from a cooper in Kentucky that sells off less desirable staves for larger barrels. A good amount of the oak coming out of southern Indiana.
Sorry that had to happen on a gift. Man I’d be pissed! Nice to hear that they were willing to try and make it right. It has been a while since I have ordered one because I’ve been using mostly badmos recently. I was going to order a barrel for my dog but may look elsewhere.
Cheers
Irish

[wpkluck]

Nice to hear that they were willing to try and make it right.

That wasn’t my experience. In my experience, they were extremely defensive, I think it’s because they’re getting more and more complaints. They’re not willing to admit they have production problems, and customers have expectations that they cannot meet.

[oksofar]

Kudos to BarrelsOnline.com for replacing my barrel, which I received today. Sure, I'd have liked it done right the first time; given that it was wedding gift with no time allowance for a re-do, but they responded quickly to my email (with pictures), and agreed that the barrel was damaged. At my request, they omitted the personalization, which was no longer needed. The replacement barrel appears perfect. For a gift-sized barrel (1.3 gallons), I may order from them again.

[Dmcmullen]

Discrete (wedding was 4 states away) and fun... it was a hit!
I made personalized bottles for members of the wedding party, a 1.3 gallon keg, and a bunch of "Not Purell" bottles (new, never having been filled before).
WeddingHooch.jpgIMG_9892.jpg

Were did you find the small bottles i was trying to do this for my own wedding.

[Bushman]

Related to the subject, when my son got married we had a Mexican Restaurant save their 1.75 Patron bottles for us. We ate at the restaurant once a week and picked up the bottles. We washed them really well and used them for water bottles set on the tables during the reception.

[oksofar]

Discrete (wedding was 4 states away) and fun... it was a hit!
I made personalized bottles for members of the wedding party, a 1.3 gallon keg, and a bunch of "Not Purell" bottles (new, never having been filled before).
WeddingHooch.jpgIMG_9892.jpg

Were did you find the small bottles i was trying to do this for my own wedding.

I found them on Amazon!

[CopperFiend]

I make my own barrels and any little imperfections that don't swell out and that I cant seal with a small reed between the seam, I dribble a small amount of my own beeswax into the seam and that works perfectly. For future reference obviously.

[Dmcmullen]

Discrete (wedding was 4 states away) and fun... it was a hit!
I made personalized bottles for members of the wedding party, a 1.3 gallon keg, and a bunch of "Not Purell" bottles (new, never having been filled before).
WeddingHooch.jpgIMG_9892.jpg

Were did you find the small bottles i was trying to do this for my own wedding.

I found them on Amazon!

Thank you so much!!

[oksofar]

Having fun with these 200ml bottles and home-made labels.