English Barrel of Beer and of Ale Volume

Barrels of beer and ale, and of wine, are subdivided from the tun. The surviving subdivisions indicate that the original tun must have been 256 gallons, but by 1347 it had been 252 gallons for so long that the King's commissioners could not explain the loss of the 4 gallons.

By at least 1454 the barrel of ale contained 32 gallons (one-eighth of the original, 256-gallon tun), and the barrel of beer contained 36 gallons. An act of 1531 confirmed these figures. By Elizabeth I's time, the gallons referred to were ale gallons of 282 cubic inches.

In 1688 the barrel of both beer and ale was set at 34 ale gallons. (London, however, persisted in using a 36-gallon beer barrel and a 32-gallon ale barrel.) The barrel of vinegar was also made 32 gallons.

In 1803 the barrel of ale or beer was raised to 36 gallons.

When the imperial gallon replaced both the ale and wine gallon in 1824, the nominal capacity of the barrel and related units, in gallons, was retained, but their actual capacities decreased.