Barrels (2024)

FAQs

What are barrels? ›

barrel, large, bulging cylindrical container of sturdy construction traditionally made from wooden staves and wooden or metal hoops. The term is also a unit of volume measure, specifically 31 gallons of a fermented or distilled beverage, or 42 gallons of a petroleum product.

a large cask (especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 hogsheads or 126 gallons) hogshead.

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.

In the 21st century, coopers mostly operate barrel-making machinery and assemble casks for the wine and spirits industry. Traditionally, the staves were heated to make them easier to bend.

to put someone in a very difficult situation in which the person has no choice about what they do: She knows I need the work so she has me over a barrel in terms of what she pays me. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Difficult situations and unpleasant experiences.

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.

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.

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.

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

A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, usually alcoholic beverages; a small barrel or cask is known as a keg.

What is another name for a small barrel? ›

cask cylinder drum pipe. Strong matches. butt firkin hogshead keg receptacle tub tun vat vessel.

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.

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.

One of the common uses for wooden barrels has been to store wines and other spirits. Specifically, an oak wood barrel is used to store and ferment wine, whiskey, and bourbon. Used wooden barrels are available to be used to store and ferment spirits.

The fill volume of a barrel is equal to 42 U.S. Gallons or 35 Imperial Gallons.

The forefathers of the barrels we use today were developed around 800-900 B.C. during the Iron Age, and were used to hold beer, wine, olive oil and pretty much anything else that would fit inside.