What is a barrel in commercial craft beer brewing?



A barrel, frequently abbreviated BBL, is 31 U.S. gallons. The standard huge beer kegs pictured below are 1/2 barrels, and also the taller skinnier beer kegs are 1/6 barrels. The wooden barrels you normally see utilized for aging bourbon are usually 53-gallon barrels.

Barrel Brewing Ability
When it comes to ability, smaller-scale developing systems, or what the market would call their brewhouse, are usually in the 7 to 10 barrel variety. Bigger breweries can have 60 to over 1,000 barrel brewhouses, and also they brew numerous times a day.

Annual Barrel Manufacturing
For production, the barrel matter is utilized for establishing yearly manufacturing. For instance, one of our local breweries can brew 60,000 barrels annual, but they offer and also make 23,000 barrels. On The Other Hand, Anheuser-Busch InBev made 426 million barrels in 2016. The homebrewer association composed an interesting article putting their insane barrel brewing capacity in perspective. Primarily, in 2016, the U.S. had 5,234 craft breweries, which combined made 24.6 million barrels of beer. So usually, each brewery created 4,700 barrels each year. After grinding the numbers, Anheuser-Busch InBev made this quantity every 5 mins and also 48 secs.

Now that you recognize what a barrel is, next time you visit a commercial beer brewery, go in advance as well as ask, "What dimension brewhouse do you have back there? And follow it up with, "How many barrels did you do in 2015? You'll sound like an old pro, perhaps even obtain a market discount rate.

The typical large beer kegs envisioned below are 1/2 barrels, and also the taller skinnier beer kegs are 1/6 barrels. The wood barrels you generally see used for aging whiskey are normally 53-gallon barrels. One of our local breweries can make 60,000 barrels annual, however they make and market 23,000 barrels. Now that you know what a barrel is, next time you visit a business beer brewery, go in advance and also ask, "What dimension brewhouse do you have back there?