Wood barrel..?

I found a guy who makes wood barrels used to age whiskey and beer. They look pretty cool.. I was thinking about buying one.. My question is.. would I use the barrel as a secondary fermenter, or would I put the beer in the barrel in place of bottleing and then bottle as I want to drink the beer..?? Im not sure how the carbonation would work in the wood barrel...Any thoughts..??

Usually, oak barrels are used to age beer. So yes, it is a "secondary" of sorts. Most brewers don't use brand new barrels. They tend to repurpose old barrels. Whiskey barrels to impart those flavors. Wine barrels for the fact that they have had a lot of oak tannins leached out already. You usually don't carbonate in a wood barrel. You would age it until it had the correct oak flavor, then bottle or keg like normal. The longer it stays on the oak, the more character it will pick up. A lot of people age big styles like barleywine, old ale, RIS and double IPA on oak or other wood. Sour beers are also aged in wood, but for much different reasons.

Thanks for the information...