UK Beer Barrel (bbl (UK))

Imperial (British)Traditional unit (still used in some regions)

36 imperial gallons (163.66 L). A traditional British beer barrel.

1 UK beer barrel = 163.65924 liters (exactly).

About the UK beer barrel

Barrel entered English from medieval French baril, a word of unknown origin. Across medieval Europe barrels ranged from roughly 100 to 1,000 liters depending on place and contents, so the brewer's barrel is only one of many. In British brewing it is fixed at 36 imperial gallons, about 164 liters (163.66 L at the figure used here) or roughly 43 US gallons.

The size matters because the other traditional beer casks are fractions of it. A firkin is a quarter of a barrel at 9 gallons, a kilderkin is half at 18 gallons, and the barrel itself is two kilderkins or four firkins. Today the barrel survives mainly as an accounting unit in brewery statistics rather than as a physical container, since most beer now travels in metal kegs measured in liters.

Sources: Wikipedia: Barrel (unit); Wikipedia: Kilderkin; Wikipedia: Firkin (unit)

UK Beer Barrel conversion chart

1 UK beer barrel expressed in every other volume unit:

More Imperial (British) units

• imperial gallon (volume)
• imperial quart (volume)
• imperial pint (volume)
• imperial gill (volume)
• imperial fluid ounce (volume)
• firkin (volume)
• kilderkin (volume)
• hogshead (ale) (volume)
• stone (weight & mass)
• long ton (weight & mass)
• hundredweight (UK) (weight & mass)
• quarter (UK) (weight & mass)
• fortnight (time)
• score (time)
• furlong per fortnight (speed)
• poundal (force)

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