Barrels (2024)

FAQs

What are barrels? ›

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 as wine, cognac, armagnac, sherry, port, whiskey, beer, arrack, and sake.

Depending on the shape, a distinction is made between round barrels (the most common shape), drum barrels (shorter than the diameter of the belly) and oval barrels (taller than they are wide). Wooden barrels are mainly used for storing and transporting wines, but are also used for barrel fermentation.

hogshead. a large cask especially one holding 63 gals. keg. small cask or barrel.

Craftsmen who make wooden barrels are called coopers. The word is most likely derived from the Latin word for vat, "cupa." In New England, coopers arrived with the first English settlers in the 1620s. Their work was essential to commerce and daily life.

You might hear the expression "stare down the barrel of a gun," which means you're looking at a gun pointed right at your face. A barrel is also used as a unit of measure or to refer to a large unit of measure. When someone says they are having "barrels of fun," they're having a really great time.

idiom informal (also give someone both barrels, hit someone with both barrels) to attack, criticize, or punish someone very forcefully: He arrived late to meet his girlfriend at the airport. She gave him both barrels.

barrel (noun as in cylindrical container) Strongest matches. cask cylinder drum pipe.

A drum (also called a barrel) is a cylindrical shipping container used for shipping bulk cargo. Drums can be made of steel, dense paperboard (commonly called a fiber drum), or plastic, and are generally used for the transportation and storage of liquids and powders.

Steel drums, also known as 55-gallon drums are used both for transportation and storage, though, most often, they are used for the former.

From Middle English barel, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin.

What is the legal definition of a barrel? ›

(3) The term “barrel” means forty-two United States gallons at sixty degrees Fahrenheit.

Kegs and casks are containers commonly used to store, transport and serve beer, cider and other drinks. While casks were originally wooden, you're now much more likely to see stainless steel varieties of any brewery containers.

That honor belongs to one for brewing soy sauce in Japan which clocks in a truly massive 540,000 liters in capacity. If you want to talk specifically about wine barrels, then there's the Heidelberg Tun which, when built in 1751 had a capacity of 221,726 litres.

Large wooden liquor barrels used for aging spirits are called a vat, whereas a small barrel is known as a keg. In modern times, the wood used in wine barrels come from three different oak trees, namely: French Common Oak (Quercus robur) Irish Oak (Quercus petraea)

Winemakers looking for larger vessels will often use puncheons or demi-muids, which hold 500L and 600L respectively. Even larger than that are French foudres, which technically aren't barrels as they are significantly larger.