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The butt (from the medieval French and Italian botte) or pipe is an old English unit of wine casks, holding two hogsheads (approx. 475 to 480 litres). A hogshead varied in size but today (in the U.S.A.) is most commonly 63 US gallons (7 firkins; ca. 238.5 litres), so a butt is now (in the U.S.A.) usually 126 US gallons (≈ 104 imperial gallons; but in the UK a hogshead is 3 kilderkin, a kilderkin is 2 firkins and a firkin is 9 gallons, making the pipe 108 gallons).
How big a butt or pipe of wine is can also depend on what kind of wine it is.
The size of a butt of wine also depends on the country where it is produced. Typically, butts of wine produced in sub-Saharan African countries are bigger than those found in European countries.
Traditionally, a butt of beer is 162 gallons or 613 litres. That is three, not two, hogsheads of beer.
Tradition has that George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV of England was drowned in a butt of malmsey, February 18, 1478. 1 2 It was used in the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" for describing the Amontillado's size.
Footnotes
| gallon | rundlet | barrel | tierce | hogshead | firkin, puncheon, tertian | pipe, butt | tun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tun | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | pipes, butts | ||||||
| 1 | 11⁄2 | 3 | firkins, puncheons, tertians | |||||
| 1 | 11⁄3 | 2 | 4 | hogsheads | ||||
| 1 | 11⁄2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | tierces | |||
| 1 | 11⁄3 | 2 | 22⁄3 | 4 | 8 | barrels | ||
| 1 | 13⁄4 | 21⁄3 | 31⁄2 | 42⁄3 | 7 | 14 | rundlets | |
| 1 | 18 | 311⁄2 | 42 | 63 | 84 | 126 | 252 | gallons (US/wine) |
| 3.79 | 68.14 | 119.24 | 158.99 | 238.48 | 317.97 | 476.96 | 953.92 | litres |
| 1 | 15 | 261⁄4 | 35 | 521⁄2 | 70 | 105 | 210 | gallons (imperial) |
| 4.55 | 68.19 | 119.3 | 159.1 | 238.7 | 318.2 | 477.3 | 954.7 | litres |
| gallon | firkin | kilderkin | barrel | hogshead | (butt) | (tun) | Year designated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tuns | |||||||
| 1 | 13⁄4 | butts | ||||||
| 1 | 3 | 51⁄4 | hogsheads | |||||
| 1 | 11⁄2 | 41⁄2 | 77⁄8 | barrels | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 153⁄4 | kilderkins | |||
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 18 | 311⁄2 | firkins | ||
| 1 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 48 | 144 | 252 | ale gallons (ale) | (1454) |
| = 4.62 | = 36.97 | = 73.94 | = 147.88 | = 221.82 | = 665.44 | = 1164.52 | litres (ale) | |
| 1 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | 162 | 2831⁄2 | ale gallons (beer) | |
| = 4.62 | = 41.59 | = 83.18 | = 166.36 | = 249.54 | = 748.62 | = 1310.09 | litres (beer) | |
| 1 | 81⁄2 | 17 | 34 | 51 | ale gallons | 1688 | ||
| = 4.62 | = 39.28 | = 78.56 | = 157.12 | = 235.68 | litres | |||
| 1 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | ale gallons | 1803 | ||
| = 4.62 | = 41.59 | = 83.18 | = 166.36 | = 249.54 | litres | |||
| 1 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | imperial gallons | 1824 | ||
| = 4.55 | = 40.91 | = 81.83 | = 163.66 | = 245.49 | litres |
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