Hogshead

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}}

File:English wine cask units.jpg

A hogshead in relation to other barrels

A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commercial product) for manufacturing and sale. 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.

Etymology

File:US-Stamp-Beer-1867-2 dollars (1 hogshead).jpg

United States revenue stamp (proof) for the $2 tax on one hogshead of beer in 1867.

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.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref>

Varieties and standardisation

File:Sugar-Hogsheads - Ten Views in the Island of Antigua (1823), plate X - BL.jpg

"Sugar hogsheads" from Ten Views in the Island of Antigua, W. Clark, 1823, plate X.

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 Template:Convert long and Template:Convert in diameter at the head (at least Template:Convert, depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about Template:ConvertTemplate:Citation needed.

A hogshead in Britain contains about Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 Template:Convert, port Template:Convert, sherry Template:Convert. The American Heritage Dictionary claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from (presumably) Template:Convert. 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).Template:Cn

Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be Template:Convert (or 63 US gallons), while a hogshead of beer or ale came to be 54 gallons (249.54221 L with the pre-1824 beer and ale gallon, or 245.48886 L with the imperial gallon).

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 and 19th centuries in the British West Indies, a hogshead weighed on average 16 cwt / 813kg. A hogshead was also used for the measurement of herring fished for sardines in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick and Cornwall.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Full citation needed

Charts

English wine cask units<ref name="Sizes 2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>	gallon	rundlet	barrel	tierce	hogshead	puncheon, tertian	pipe, butt	tun
							1	tun
						1	2	pipes, butts
					1	Template:Frac	3	puncheons, tertians
				1	Template:Frac	2	4	hogsheads
			1	Template:Frac	2	3	6	tierces
		1	Template:Frac	2	Template:Frac	4	8	barrels
	1	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	7	14	rundlets
1	18	Template:Frac	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	Template:Frac	35	Template:Frac	70	105	210	gallons (imperial)
4.546	68.19	119.3	159.1	238.7	318.2	477.3	954.7	litres

English brewery cask units<ref name="Sizes 2002a">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>	gallon	firkin	kilderkin	barrel	hogshead		Year designated
				1	hogsheads
			1	Template:Frac	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	Template:Frac	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

See also

• English units of wine casks