STR stands for Shaved, Toasted, and Recharred, a process developed by the late Jim Swan (who we had the privilege of working with at our cooperage. The process involves taking used red wine casks and rejuvenating for refilling, creating a low-cost alternative to new barrels together with a unique flavour profile. The rejuvenation of casks […]

Here at LusoBarrel around 50% of our business is supplying used barrels (mainly used Port, Madeira and Sherry barrels), but a few others too). If you go online, you may find all kinds of advice about what you need to do before filling used barrels (leak testing them, cleaning them out, steaming them, treating them

It is not always to get hold of 500 litre Ruby and Tawny Port barrels, but we have managed to buy some decent sized lots. In fact writing now in October 2025, we have available 70 of the 500 Litre Ruby Port barrels (50 years old) and 75 of the 500 litre Tawny Port barrels

If you are thinking of using wine barrels for decoration (or for example as a makeshift high table in a bar), either for your home or business then used wine barrels can be a great option as they are not only a much lower cost option, but they also give you a vintage look serving

In the world of barrel-aged production, the quality of your cask can make or break your final product. Whether you’re working with a prized used port cask or a brand-new virgin oak barrel, trusting the wrong supplier puts your entire production run at risk. A single faulty cask can ruin an entire batch. At LusoBarrel, every used or new barrel is carefully inspected, repaired if needed, and pressure tested before it leaves our yard. We only work with trusted sources—no shortcuts, no surprises. Visit us in northern Portugal and see for yourself.

For these last few years it has been very difficult to source used bourbon barrels as the US distillers have developed long-term contracts with European distillers to sell their used barrels, which has made it difficult for independent cooperages like us to get hold of them in decent volumes. We have been able to get

In our cooperaage about half of the work we do is producing new barrels and half is refurbishing used barrels – when it comes to new barrels the quality of the oak and workmanship should be readily apparent, but the used barrels world is far more opaque. In this article we are going to look

in this post we are going to look at the reasons for seasoning oak before it is used to make barrels. Here at our cooperage we used to have our own saw mill to cut the oak into planks, but this work is now done to specialist saw mills. So we buy our wood as

STR casks are used red wine barrels that are rejuvenated so that they can be used again by distilleries to make some interesting flavours and make some considerable savings. Here at Luso Barrel we have been investing quite heavily in new machinery to enable us to increase our production of STR casks to meet growing

We supply our new and used barrels all round the world and there are a few precautions that need to be taken when transporting and storing them before filling. Here we are going to look at how best to look after your barrels to prevent leaks and damaging the flavour profile. Perhaps the most important