A hogshead is a large cask of liquid (less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in Imperial units, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages such as wine, ale, or cider. Traditional wooden barrels in Cutchogue Modern aluminium beer barrels - also called casks - outside the Castle Rock microbrewery in Nottingham, England A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of wood staves and bound with iron hoops. ... // Foodstuffs Fuels Precious metals Industrial metals Rare metals Other Source This list is partly adapted from [8] (Consumerium) under the clauses of GFDL External links NYMEX.com London Metal Exchange Euronext - Commodities > Commodities Chicago Board of Trade Category: ... The Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of English units, first defined in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, later refined (until 1959) and reduced. ... Bottles of cachaça, a Brazilian alcoholic beverage. ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of the juice of fruits, usually grapes. ... For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation). ... Cider in a pint glass Cider, known in the U.S. as hard cider, is an alcoholic drink made from crushed and then fermented apples. ...

A tobacco hogshead was used in colonial times to transport and store tobacco. It was a very large wooden barrel. A standardized hogshead measured 48 inches long and 30 inches in diameter at the head. Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about 1000 pounds.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that the hogshead was first standardized by an act of Parliament in 1423, though the standards continued to vary by locality and content. For example, the OED cites an 1897 edition of Whitaker's Almanack, which specified the number of gallons of wine in a hogshead varying by type of wine: claret 46 gallons, port 57, sherry 54; and Madeira 46. The American Heritage Dictionary claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from 62.5 to 140 (presumably U.S.) gallons. The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ... In Westminster System parliaments, an Act of Parliament is a part of the law passed by the Parliament. ... Events July 31 - Hundred Years War: Battle of Cravant - The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ... Claret is the name used in English for red wine from the Bordeaux region of France, along the valleys of the rivers Gironde, Garonne and Dordogne, including Medoc, Graves and Sauternes. ... Different port wines with corresponding colour Port wine (also known as Vinho do Porto, Porto, or simply Port) is a sweet, fortified wine from the Portuguese Douro Valley in the northern part of Portugal. ... Sherry solera Sherry is a type of wine originally produced in and around the town of Jerez, Spain. ... Madeira is a fortified wine made in the Madeira Islands of Portugal, which is prized equally for drinking and cooking; the latter use including the dessert plum in Madeira. ... The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) is a dictionary of American English published by Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ...

Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be 63 gallons, while a hogshead of beer or ale is 54 gallons. Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of the juice of fruits, usually grapes. ... The gallon (abbreviation: gal) is an English unit of volume. ... A selection of bottled beers A selection of cask beers Beer is the worlds oldest [1] and most popular [2] alcoholic beverage, selling more than 133 billion litres (35 billion gallons) per year. ... For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation). ...

A hogshead was also used as unit of measurement for sugar in Louisiana for most of the 19th century. Plantations were listed in sugar schedules as having produced x number of hogsheads of sugar or molasses. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A plantation is an intentional planting of a crop, on a larger scale, usually for uses other than cereal production or pasture. ...

Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of the juice of fruits, usually grapes. ... The gallon (abbreviation: gal) is an English unit of volume. ... The rundlet is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 68 litres. ... The barrel is the name of several units of measurement. ... The tierce is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 159 litres. ... A Firkin is an old English unit of volume. ... The puncheon, in the United States also called pon for brevity, is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 318 litres. ... The puncheon, in the United States also called pon for brevity, is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 318 litres. ... The butt (from the medieval French and Italian botte) or pipe is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 477 litres or rather two hogsheads. ... The butt (from the medieval French and Italian ) or pipe is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 477 litres or rather two hogsheads. ... The tun is an old English unit of wine cask volume, holding about 954 litres, almost a cubic metre. ... The U.S. customary units (more commonly known in the US as English units or standard units) are the non-metric units of measurement that are presently used in the United States, in some cases alongside the metric system of units. ... English unit is an American term that refers to a unit in one of a number of systems of units of measurement, some obsolete, and some still in use. ... The Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of English units, first defined in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, later refined (until 1959) and reduced. ... For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation). ... A selection of bottled beers A selection of cask beers Beer is the worlds oldest [1] and most popular [2] alcoholic beverage, selling more than 133 billion litres (35 billion gallons) per year. ... The gallon (abbreviation: gal) is an English unit of volume. ... A Firkin is an old English unit of volume. ... The kilderkin is an old English unit of brewery casks, holding about 82 litres. ... The barrel is the name of several units of measurement. ... The butt (from the medieval French and Italian ) or pipe is an old English unit of wine casks, holding about 477 litres or rather two hogsheads. ... The tun is an old English unit of wine cask volume, holding about 954 litres, almost a cubic metre. ... // Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the Immortal Seven, invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. ... 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of English units, first defined in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, later refined (until 1959) and reduced. ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Popular culture and trivia

• This measurement was the namesake for the UK pub chain of the same name.
• In the episode of The Simpsons entitled ‘A Star is Burns’, Grampa Simpson uttered: “The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!” That translates into about 12 (beer) or 10 ½ (wine) feet per gallon, or about 1.2 litres per metre!
• In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn hides out in a sugar-hogshead, a large barrel used for storing sugar.
• In the Harry Potter book series, the town of Hogsmeade contains a pub named the Hog's Head, a wordplay on this measurement.
• The Beatles song Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite contains the line, “Over men and horses, hoops and garters and lastly through a hogshead of real fire”
• The opening number in The Music Man contains the lines, “Cash for the noggins and the piggins and the firkins/Cash for the hogshead, cask and demijohn”, and later: “Gone with the hogshead cask and demijohn,/gone with the sugar barrel, pickle barrel, milk pan,/gone with the tub and the pail and the tierce.”