Abarrel orcask is a hollowcylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide.[1][2] They are traditionally made of woodenstaves and bound by wooden ormetal hoops. The wordvat is often used for large containers for liquids, usually alcoholic beverages;[3] a small barrel or cask is known as akeg.[4]
Barrels have a variety of uses, including storage of liquids such as water, oil, and alcohol. They are also employed to hold maturing beverages such aswine,cognac,armagnac,sherry,port,whiskey,beer,arrack, andsake. Other commodities once stored in wooden casks includegunpowder,meat, fish, paint, honey, nails, andtallow.
Early casks were bound with wooden hoops and in the 19th century these were gradually replaced by metal hoops that were stronger, more durable and took up less space.
Barrel has also been used as astandard size of measure, referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. For example, in the UK and Ireland, a barrel of beer refers to a quantity of 36 imperial gallons (160 L; 43 US gal), and is distinguished from other unit measurements, such asfirkins,hogsheads, andkilderkins.[7] Wine was shipped in barrels of 119 litres (31 US gal; 26 imp gal). A barrel of oil, defined as 42 US gallons (35 imp gal; 160 L), is still used as a measure of volume for oil, although oil is no longer shipped in barrels. The barrel has also come into use as ageneric term for a wooden cask of any size.
In Europe, buckets and casks dating to 200 BC have been found preserved in the mud oflake villages.[11] A lake village nearGlastonbury dating to the lateIron Age has yielded one complete tub and a number of wooden staves.
TheRoman historianPliny the Elder (died 79 AD) reported that cooperage in Europe originated with theGauls in Alpine villages who stored their beverages in wooden casks bound with hoops.[12] Pliny identified three different types of coopers: ordinary coopers, wine coopers and coopers who made large casks.[13] Large casks contain more and bigger staves and are correspondingly more difficult to assemble. Roman coopers tended to be independent tradesmen, passing their skills on to their sons. The Greek geographerStrabo (c. 64 BC – c. 24 AD) recorded that woodenpithoi (barrels or wine-jars) were lined with pitch to stop leakage and preserve the wine.[14]
Barrels were sometimes used for military purposes.Julius Caesar (100 to 44 BC) usedcatapults to hurl burning barrels of tar into besieged towns to start fires.[15] The Romans also used empty barrels to makepontoon bridges to cross rivers.
Empty casks were used to line the walls of shallow wells from at least Roman times. Such casks were found in 1897 during archaeological excavations of RomanSilchester in Britain. They were made ofPyrenean silver fir and the staves were 38 mm (1.5 in) thick and featured grooves where the heads fitted. They had Roman numerals scratched on the surface of each stave to help with re-assembly.[15]
InAnglo-Saxon Britain, wooden barrels were used to store ale, butter, honey andmead. Drinking-containers were also made from small staves ofoak,yew orpine. These items required considerable craftsmanship to hold liquids and might be bound with finely-worked precious metals. They were highly valued items and were sometimes buried with the dead asgrave goods.[16]
In medieval and early modern Northern Europe, wooden casks were the primary container for wet and dry cargoes carried by ships, akin to the ceramicamphora transport jars used from antiquity in the Mediterranean region.[17] Wooden barrels carried foodstuffs such as fish, beer, honey, butter, apples, raisins, nuts, malt, beans, peas, grain, barley, and oats. Gunpowder, iron, tar, coals, potash, lime, vinegar, and candles were transported in barrels; and no doubt much more. As with amphoras, different production centers applied various volumetric standards to the casks. This was enforced in some places by using sophisticated methods of gauging the casks, and then certifying the standard by municipal seals. In other places, such as theHanseatic League town of Rostock, barrel volume was determined by the number of dressed and salted herring packed into them. Some Hanse traders enforced their standards by destroying casks that did not conform. Standardized cask volume was therefore an indicator of political economy.[18]
Wine barrels in Napa Valley, California, USThisMercier oak barrel with a capacity of 200,000 Champagne bottles was created for the1889 world exposition in Paris.Opened Japanese Sake barrel for move
An "ageing barrel" is used toage wine;distilled spirits such aswhiskey,brandy, orrum;beer;tabasco sauce; or (in smaller sizes)traditional balsamic vinegar. When a wine or spirit ages in a barrel, small amounts ofoxygen are introduced as the barrel lets some air in (compare tomicrooxygenation where oxygen is deliberately added). Oxygen enters a barrel whenwater oralcohol is lost due toevaporation, a portion known as the "angels' share". In an environment with 100% relativehumidity, very little water evaporates and so most of the loss is alcohol, a useful trick if one has a wine with very highproof. Most beverages are topped up from other barrels to prevent significant oxidation, although others such asvin jaune andsherry are not.
Beverages aged in wooden barrels take on some of the compounds in the barrel, such asvanillin and woodtannins. The presence of these compounds depends on many factors, including the place of origin, how the staves were cut and dried, and the degree of "toast" applied during manufacture. Barrels used for aging are typically made of French or Americanoak, butchestnut andredwood are also used. Some Asian beverages (e.g., Japanesesake) useJapanese cedar, which imparts an unusual, minty-piney flavor. In Peru and Chile, a grape distillate namedpisco is either aged in oak or inearthenware.
Some wines are fermented "on barrel", as opposed to in a neutral container like steel or wine-gradeHDPE (high-density polyethylene) tanks. Wine can also be fermented in large wooden tanks, which—when open to the atmosphere—are called "open-tops". Other wooden cooperage for storing wine or spirits range from smaller barriques to huge casks, with eitherelliptical or round heads.
The tastes yielded by French and American species of oak are slightly different, with French oak being subtler, while American oak gives stronger aromas.[19] To retain the desired measure of oak influence, awinery will replace a certain percentage of its barrels every year, although this can vary from 5 to 100%. Some winemakers use "200% new oak", where the wine is put into new oak barrels twice during the aging process.Bulk wines are sometimes more cheaply flavored by soaking inoak chips or added commercial oak flavoring instead of being aged in a barrel because of the much lower cost.
Sherry barrel with glass barrel head to show the layer offlor floating atop the aging wine
Sherry is stored in 600-litre (130 imp gal; 160 US gal) casks made of North American oak, which is slightly more porous than French or Spanish oak. The casks, or butts, are filled five-sixths full, leaving "the space of two fists" empty at the top to allowflor to develop on top of the wine. Sherry is also commonly swapped between barrels of different ages, a process that is known assolera.
Charredwhite oak barrels are filled with newbourbon whiskey and resting in a rack house for a period of typically 4 to 9 years (for good-quality bourbon), with thechar giving the bourbon its characteristic copper color.
Laws in several jurisdictions require that whiskey be aged in wooden barrels. The law in the United States requires that "straight whiskey" (with the exception ofcorn whiskey) must be stored for at least two years in new, charred oak containers.[20] Other forms of whiskey aged in used barrels cannot be called "straight".[20]
International laws require any whisky bearing the label "Scotch" to be distilled and matured inScotland for a minimum of three years and one day in oak casks.[21]
By Canadian law,[22]Canadian whiskies must "be aged in small wood for not less than three years", and "small wood" is defined as a wood barrel not exceeding 700 litres (150 imp gal; 180 US gal) capacity.
Since US law requires the use of new barrels for several popular types of whiskey, which is not typically considered necessary elsewhere, whiskey made elsewhere is usually aged in used barrels that previously contained American whiskey (usuallybourbon whiskey). The typical bourbon barrel is 53 US gallons (200 L; 44 imp gal) in size, which is thus thede facto standard whiskey barrel size worldwide.[23][24] Some distillers transfer their whiskey into different barrels to "finish" or add qualities to the final product. These finishing barrels frequently aged a different spirit (such as rum) or wine. Other distillers, particularly those producing Scotch, often disassemble five used bourbon barrels and reassemble them into four casks with different barrel ends for aging Scotch, creating a type of cask referred to as ahogshead.[25]
Maturing is very important for a goodbrandy, which is typically aged in oak casks. The wood used for those barrels is selected because of its ability to transfer certain aromas to the spirit.Cognac is aged only in oak casks made from wood from theForest of Tronçais and more often from the Limousin forests.
Some types oftequila are aged in oak barrels to mellow its flavor. "Reposado" tequila is aged for a period of two months to one year, "Añejo" tequila is aged for up to three years, and "Extra Añejo" tequila is aged for at least three years. Like with other spirits, longer aging results in a more pronounced flavor.
Beers are sometimes aged in barrels which were previously used for maturing wines or spirits. This is most common in darker beers such as stout, which is sometimes aged in oak barrels identical to those used for whiskey. Whisky distiller Jameson notably purchases barrels used by Franciscan Well brewery for their Shandon Stout to produce a whisky branded as "Jameson Caskmates".Cask ale is aged in the barrel (usually steel) for a short time before serving. Extensive barrel aging is required of manysour beers.
Vernorsginger ale is marketed as having a "barrel-aged" flavor, and the syrup used to produce the beverage was originally aged in oak barrels when first manufactured in the 19th century.[28] Whether the syrup continues to be aged in oak is unclear.[28]
The angels' share in thesherry aging produces fungus on the walls.The angels' share fungus,Baudoinia compniacensis on bark, top, with an unaffected sample below
"Angels' share" is a term for the portion (share) of a wine ordistilled spirit'svolume that is lost toevaporation during aging in oak barrels. The ambienthumidity tends to affect the composition of this share. Drier conditions tend to make the barrels evaporate more water, strengthening the spirit. However, in higher humidities, more alcohol than water will evaporate, therefore reducing the alcoholic strength of the product. This alcoholic evaporate encourages the growth of a darkly colored fungus, the angels' share fungus,Baudoinia compniacensis, which tends to appear on the exterior surfaces of most things in the immediate area.[29][30]
Water barrels are often used to collect therainwater from dwellings (so that it may be used for irrigation or other purposes). This usage, known asrainwater harvesting, requires (besides a largerainwater barrel or water butt) adequate (waterproof) roof-covering and an adequaterain pipe.
Blue 55-US gallon (44 imp gal, 200 L) barrel (drum)
Wooden casks of various sizes were used to storewhale oil on ships in theage of sail. Its viscous nature madesperm whale oil a particularly difficult substance to contain in staved containers. Oil coopers were probably the most skilled coopers in pre-industrial cooperage.Olive oil,seed oils and other organic oils were also placed in wooden casks for storage or transport.
Wooden casks were also used to store mineral oil. The standard sizebarrel ofcrude oil or otherpetroleum product (abbreviated bbl) is 42US gallons (35.0 imp gal; 159.0 L). This measurement originated in the earlyPennsylvaniaoil fields, and permitted both British and American merchants to refer to the same unit, based on the old English wine measure, thetierce.
Earlier, another size of whiskey barrel was the most common size; this was the 40 US gallons (33.3 imp gal; 151.4 L) barrel for proof spirits, which was of the same volume as five US bushels. However, by 1866, the oil barrel was standardized at 42 US gallons.
Oil has not been shipped in barrels[31] since the introduction ofoil tankers, but the 42 US gallon size is still used as a unit of measurement for pricing and tax and regulatory codes. Each barrel is refined into about 20 US gallons (17 imp gal; 76 L) ofgasoline,[32] the rest becoming other products such as jet fuel and heating oil, usingfractional distillation.[33]
A half-completed beer barrel; in wine barrel cooperage this set-up is called "mise en rose".A cooper making a cask at a chemical works in England, September 1918
Barrels have a convex shape and bulge at their center, called bilge. This facilitatesrolling a well-built wooden barrel on its side and allows the roller to change directions with little friction, compared to acylinder. It also helps to distributestress evenly in the material by making the container more curved.[citation needed] Barrels have reinforced edges to enable safe displacement by rolling them at an angle (in addition to rolling on their sides as described).[citation needed]
The wooden parts that make up a barrel are calledstaves, the top and bottom are both calledheads orheaders, and the rings that hold the staves together are calledhoops. These are usually made of galvanized iron, though historically they were made of flexible bits of wood calledwithies. While wooden hoops could require barrels to be "fully hooped", with hoops stacked tightly together along the entire top and bottom third of a barrel, iron-hooped barrels only require a few hoops on each end.[34][page needed]
Wine barrels typically come in two hoop configurations. An American barrel features six hoops, from top to center:head- orchime hoop,quarter hoop andbilge hoop (times two), while a French barrel features eight, including a so-calledFrench hoop, located between the quarter- and bilge hoops (see "wine barrel parts" illustration).[citation needed]
The opening at the center of a barrel is called abunghole and the stopper used to seal it is abung. The latter is generally made of whitesilicone.[citation needed]
A barrel is one of severalunits ofvolume, with dry barrels, fluid barrels (UK beer barrel, US beer barrel), oil barrel, etc. The volume of some barrel units is double others, with various volumes in the range of about 100–200 litres (22–44 imp gal; 26–53 US gal).
The pre-1824wine gallon continues to be used in the US, with 231 cubic inches being the standardgallon for liquids. In Britain and its colonies, the wine gallon was replaced by theimperial gallon in 1826. Thetierce later became the petrol barrel.
Thetun was originally 256gallons, which explains the origin of the quarter, 8bushels or 64 (wine) gallons.
Although it is common to refer todraught beer containers of any size as barrels, in the UK this is strictly correct only if the container holds 36 imperial gallons. The terms "keg" and "cask" refer to containers of any size, the distinction being that kegs are used forbeers intended to be served using external gas cylinders.Cask ales undergo part of their fermentation process in their containers, called casks.
Casks are available in several sizes, and it is common to refer to "afirkin" or "a kil" (kilderkin) instead of a cask.
The modern US beer barrel is 31 US gallons (117.34777 L), half a gallon less than the traditional wine barrel (26 U.S.C. §5051[37]).
Barrels are also used as a unit of measurement fordry goods (dry groceries), such as flour or produce. Traditionally, a barrel is 196 pounds (89 kg) of flour (wheat or rye), with other substances such as pork subject to more local variation. In modern times, produce barrels for all dry goods, excepting cranberries, contain 7,056 cubic inches, about 115.627 L.[38]
In the northeastern United States, nails, bolts, and plumbing fittings were commonly shipped in small rough barrels. These were small, 18 inches high by about 10–12 inches in diameter. The wood was the quality of pallet lumber. The binding was sometimes by wire or metal hoops or both. This practice seems to have been prevalent up till the 1980s. Older hardware stores probably still have some of these barrels.[citation needed]
^Rogers, Adam (2014). "Aging".Proof: The Science of Booze. Mariner books. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 109.ISBN9780547897967.In book I ofHistory, Herodotus says that Armenian wine merchants in the fifth century BC [...] could carry nearly 25 tons of wine along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to Babylon. Most wine histories say that Herodotus wrote that wine was transported in 'barrels made of palm tree wood' [...]. [...] But [...] The Armenians didn't have the wood to make the barrels. Herodotus uses the termbikos phoinikeiou to refer to the vessel holding the wine, and McGovern saysphoinikeiou probably means 'Phoenician,' referring to a Phoenician-typeamphora.
^"Casks (barrels, butts, punchons, pipes, barriques, and hogsheads)",Difford's GuideArchived 2015-12-22 at theWayback Machine. Accessed on December 17, 2015.
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