A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages, such as wine, ale, or cider.
English philologist Walter William Skeat (1835–1912) noted the origin is to be found in the name for a cask or liquid measure appearing in various forms in Germanic languages, in Dutch oxhooft (modern okshoofd), Danish oxehoved, Old Swedish oxhuvud, etc. The Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911 conjectured that the word should therefore be "oxhead", "hogshead" being a mere corruption. [1]
A tobacco hogshead was used in British and American colonial times to transport and store tobacco. It was a very large wooden barrel. A standardized hogshead measured 48 inches (1.22 m) long and 30 inches (76.20 cm) in diameter at the head (at least 550 L or 121 imp gal or 145 US gal, depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about 1,000 pounds (454 kg)[ citation needed ].
A hogshead in Britain contains about 300 L (66 imp gal; 79 US gal). [2]
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that the hogshead was first standardized by an act of Parliament (2 Hen. 6. c. 14) 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 gallons of wine in a hogshead varying most particularly across fortified wines: claret/Madeira 46 imperial gallons (55 US gal; 209 L), port 57 imperial gallons (68 US gal; 259 L), sherry 54 imperial gallons (65 US gal; 245 L). The American Heritage Dictionary claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from (presumably) 62.5 to 140 US gallons (52 to 117 imp gal; 237 to 530 L). A hogshead of Madeira wine was approximately equal to 45–48 gallons (0.205–0.218 m3). A hogshead of brandy was approximately equal to 56–61 gallons (0.255–0.277) m3.[ citation needed ]
Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be 63 US gallons (52.5 imp gal ; 238.5 L ), while a hogshead of beer or ale is 54 gallons (250 L if old beer/ale gallons, 245 L if imperial).
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 by the number of hogsheads of sugar or molasses produced. Used for sugar in the 18th & 19th centuries in the British West Indies, a hogshead weighed on average 16 cwt / 812kg. A hogshead was also used for the measurement of herring fished for sardines in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick and Cornwall. [3] [ full citation needed ]
| gallon | rundlet | barrel | tierce | hogshead | puncheon, tertian | pipe, butt | tun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tun | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | pipes, butts | ||||||
| 1 | 1+1⁄2 | 3 | puncheons, tertians | |||||
| 1 | 1+1⁄3 | 2 | 4 | hogsheads | ||||
| 1 | 1+1⁄2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | tierces | |||
| 1 | 1+1⁄3 | 2 | 2+2⁄3 | 4 | 8 | barrels | ||
| 1 | 1+3⁄4 | 2+1⁄3 | 3+1⁄2 | 4+2⁄3 | 7 | 14 | rundlets | |
| 1 | 18 | 31+1⁄2 | 42 | 63 | 84 | 126 | 252 | gallons (wine) |
| 3.785 | 68.14 | 119.24 | 158.99 | 238.48 | 317.97 | 476.96 | 953.92 | litres |
| 1 | 15 | 26+1⁄4 | 35 | 52+1⁄2 | 70 | 105 | 210 | gallons (imperial) |
| 4.546 | 68.19 | 119.3 | 159.1 | 238.7 | 318.2 | 477.3 | 954.7 | litres |
| gallon | firkin | kilderkin | barrel | hogshead | Year designated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hogsheads | |||||
| 1 | 1+1⁄2 | barrels | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | kilderkins | |||
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | firkins | ||
| 1 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 48 | ale gallons | (1454) |
| = 4.621 L | = 36.97 L | = 73.94 L | = 147.9 L | = 221.8 L | ||
| 1 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | beer gallons | |
| = 4.621 L | = 41.59 L | = 83.18 L | = 166.4 L | = 249.5 L | ||
| 1 | 8+1⁄2 | 17 | 34 | 51 | ale gallons | 1688 |
| = 4.621 L | = 39.28 L | = 78.56 L | = 157.1 L | = 235.7 L | ||
| 1 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | ale gallons | 1803 |
| = 4.621 L | = 41.59 L | = 83.18 L | = 166.4 L | = 249.5 L | ||
| 1 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | imperial gallons | 1824 |
| = 4.546 L | = 40.91 L | = 81.83 L | = 163.7 L | = 245.5 L |
The gallon is a unit of volume in British imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use:
The pint is a unit of volume or capacity in both the imperial and United States customary measurement systems. In both of those systems it is traditionally one eighth of a gallon. The British imperial pint is about 20% larger than the American pint because the two systems are defined differently. Almost all other countries have standardized on the metric system, so although some of them still also have traditional units called pints, the volume varies by regional custom.
Tonnage is a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume or cargo volume of a ship. Although tonnage (volume) should not be confused with displacement, the long ton of 2,240 lb is derived from the fact that a "tun" of wine typically weighed that much.
A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels, oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units are roughly double the volumes of others; volumes in common use range approximately from 100 to 200 litres. In many connections the term drum is used almost interchangeably with barrel.
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, usually alcoholic beverages; a small barrel or cask is known as a keg.
A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs, and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable.
A keg is a small cask.
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The butt is an obsolete English measure of liquid volume equalling two hogsheads, being between 450 and 1,060 litres by various definitions.
English units were the units of measurement used in England up to 1826, which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. Various standards have applied to English units at different times, in different places, and for different applications.
Alcohol measurements are units of measurement for determining amounts of beverage alcohol.
Dry measures are units of volume to measure bulk commodities that are not fluids and that were typically shipped and sold in standardized containers such as barrels. They have largely been replaced by the units used for measuring volumes in the metric system and liquid volumes in the imperial system but are still used for some commodities in the US customary system. They were or are typically used in agriculture, agronomy, and commodity markets to measure grain, dried beans, dried and fresh produce, and some seafood. They were formerly used for many other foods, such as salt pork and salted fish, and for industrial commodities such as coal, cement, and lime.
This glossary of winemaking terms lists some of terms and definitions involved in making wine, fruit wine, and mead.
Capacities of wine casks were formerly measured and standardised according to a specific system of English units. The various units were historically defined in terms of the wine gallon so varied according to the definition of the gallon until the adoption of the Queen Anne wine gallon in 1707. In the United Kingdom and its colonies the units were redefined with the introduction of the imperial system whilst the Queen Anne wine gallon was adopted as the standard US liquid gallon.
A wine gallon is a unit of capacity that was used routinely in England as far back as the 14th century, and by statute under Queen Anne since 1707. Britain abandoned the wine gallon in 1826 when it adopted imperial units for measurement. The 1707 wine gallon is the basis of the United States' gallon, as well as other measures.
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The puncheon was a British unit for beer, wines and spirits. It was also an American unit of capacity for wine.
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The Exchequer Standards may refer to the set of official English standards for weights and measures created by Queen Elizabeth I, and in effect from 1588 to 1825, when the Imperial units system took effect, or to the whole range of English unit standards maintained by the Court of the Exchequer from the 1200s, or to the physical reference standards physically kept at the Exchequer and used as the legal reference until the such responsibility was transferred in the 1860s, after the Imperial system had been established.
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