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A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). 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

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.

Varieties and standardisation

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).

A hogshead in Britain contains about 300 L (66 imp gal; 79 US gal).

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 m). A hogshead of brandy was approximately equal to 56–61 gallons (0.255–0.277 m).

Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be 52.5 imperial gallons (238.669725 L) (63 US gallons), while a hogshead of beer or ale came to be 54 gallons (249.5421 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.

Charts

See also

• English units of wine casks

References

1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hogshead" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 507.
2. "AP John Technical Specifications" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-02-15.
3. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0001617/18601205/057/0004?browse=true – via British Newspaper Archive. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. "wine barrel". Sizes. 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
5. "English Beer and Ale Barrel". Sizes. 2002-01-23. Retrieved 2018-03-27.

• Imperial units
• Wine packaging and storage
• Brewing
• Units of volume
• Containers
• Alcohol measurement
• Customary units of measurement in the United States