Hogshead
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A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commercial product) for manufacturing and sale. 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
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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 Template:Lang (modern Template:Lang), Danish Template:Lang, Old Swedish Template:Lang, etc. The Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911 conjectured that the word should therefore be oxhead, hogshead being a mere corruption.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref>
Varieties and standardisation
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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 Template:Convert long and Template:Convert in diameter at the head (at least Template:Convert, depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about Template:Convert.
A hogshead in Britain contains about Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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 Template:Convert, port Template:Convert, sherry Template:Convert. The American Heritage Dictionary claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from (presumably) Template:Convert. A hogshead of Madeira wine was approximately equal to 45–48 gallons (0.205–0.218 m3). A hogshead of brandy was approximately equal to 56–61 gallons (0.255–0.277 m3).Template:Cn
Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be Template:Convert (or 63 US gallons), while a hogshead of beer or ale came to be 54 gallons (249.54221 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 Template:Convert. A hogshead was also used for the measurement of herring fished for sardines in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick and Cornwall.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Full citation needed
Whisky maturation
Hogsheads are a common form of cask used for maturing Scotch Whisky, typically with a volume of around 250 litres.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
These casks are usually made from the staves of ex-Bourbon or Tennessee whiskey casks, which are plentiful due to US law requiring a new barrel for each batch of whiskey. The staves will be mated to new, larger heads which results in a higher volume - this means that five whiskey barrels are needed to make four hogsheads as the circumference is greater.
Using just the staves means that barrels can be shipped across the Atlantic in their component parts, which is much more space-efficient than shipping barrels whole. The new heads may be of American white oak similar to the recycled staves, or may be of other woods such as European or Mizunara oak.
Charts
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