How Big is a Barrel?
How big a barrel is depends what you mean by a barrel, if it’s a barrel or a cask, where you live in the world, and what you keep in it.
How Big is a Barrel… or is it a Cask?
The first question is what you mean by a barrel. These days the words barrel and cask tend to be used interchangeably, and even if you look up ‘cask’ on Wikipedia, it redirects you to the entry for ‘barrel’. Technically they are different, though. A barrel is a particular type of cask, just as bourbon is a particular style of whiskey. So, all barrels are casks, but not all casks are barrels.
How Big Was a Barrel?
The use of the word barrel for a particular size of cask goes back to medieval times. You can’t say exactly how much it was as it kept changing over time, and also from country to country. At various times and places it was anything from 100 liters (26.4 US gallons/22 imperial gallons) to 1,000 liters (264 US gallons/220 imperial gallons)!
How Big is a Barrel Today?
How big a barrel is today also depends on what they contain. For example, if they contain something dry like flour, the capacity is different from the same-sized barrel that has liquid in it. Barrels are also different sizes for different types of beers, wines, and spirits.
How Big is a Gallon?
To add to the confusion, US gallons are different from imperial gallons. Imperial gallons are used in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and some countries in the Caribbean. Other Caribbean countries use US gallons, and these are also used in Central and South America. And the United States, of course.
How Big is a Wine Barrel?
A Bordeaux wine barrel is a standard 225 liters in size, which equates to 49 imperial gallons or 59 US gallons. This is now a fairly common size around the world. Except in Burgundy. A traditional Burgundy barrel is a whole three liters bigger, at 228 liters (50 imperial gallons or 60 US gallons).
Move a short way from Bordeaux to Cognac in France and you’ll discover that a standard cognac barrel is 300 liters (66 imperial gallons or 79 US gallons).
How Big is a Beer Barrel?
The most common size for a beer barrel is 36 gallons. So do we at last have an agreed standard barrel size? Well, yes and no. In the US they use barrels that contain 36 US gallons and in the UK they naturally use 36 imperial gallons. The US beer barrel is equivalent to 30 imperial gallons or 136.3 liters, while the UK barrel equates to 43.2 US gallons or 164 liters.
How Big is a Whiskey Barrel?
The most common size for a whiskey barrel around the world is 53 US gallons, which equals 44 imperial gallons or 200 liters. This has become fairly standardized as of course ex-bourbon barrels are popular around the world for aging other spirits, notably whisky in Scotland, so it’s been easier to establish a standard whiskey barrel size than for beer or wine…
How Big is an Oil Barrel?
Oil today is still measured in barrels, even though it’s a long time since oil was transported in barrels. A standard oil barrel holds 42 US gallons (35 imperial gallons or 159 liters). This goes back to 1859 when the USA’s first commercial oil field was discovered, and oil extracted.
The most suitable and available storage containers were whiskey barrels, and that was the standard size for a US whiskey barrel at that time. Even though the standard barrel size has changed for whiskey since then, oil has stuck with the tradition.
So the simple answer to the question of how big is a barrel, is – it depends!
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