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Ales are delivered to pubs in varying sizes of cask dependent on the amount of storage capacity and also the volume of ales which the pub can sell. A 'Pin' can easily be stored on a counter top to dispense the ales straight to the glass but the largest cask used would normally be a 'Hogshead' as anything larger becomes very difficult to move around a cellar The firkin, a small beer cask, holding nine Imperial gallons (72 pints) would have been of traditional wooden construction (often Oak) whereas modern day casks are usually made from Aluminium. Aluminium kegs start at nine gallons. They are of the non-pressurised type for real ales, unlike the casks of 'Keg' beers which require the assistance of carbon dioxide gas to extract the contents. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The word 'barrel' is
commonly used as a name for the type of container which beers are delivered to
the pub in. However the word is more correctly, a unit of
measure. As a container, the cask was made of wood and
roughly cylindrical in shape except that it 'bulged' outwards in the middle, and
was used to transport not only the obvious liquids (water, beer, wine etc.) but
also other commodities such as fish, sugar, flour, meat, cement, minerals, and
so on. The sizes of the different casks varied with contents and, some of
these different casks acquired different names. 