Glass is easier to sanitize than plastic or wood. Wood has some benefits if you can get a decent clean barrel, in that wood has some natural antiseptic properties. But it can also impart off flavors especially the american grown oaks. English oaks impart much less flavor to drinks fermenting in them, but the silly english cut most of their trees down, and the oak they used in period to store and ferment is not really available for construction of barrels.

If you want a nice barrel with a wax/parafin lining to get the look, and the cleanliness you can check the J something Townsend catalog that I am sure you know about. the recreation catalog mostly focussed on colonial, but with some period stuff.

badger