But maybe we need an English dictionary to give us a satisfactory definition. My compact OED defines a keg simply as “a small barrel” and “cask” as “a large barrel for storing alcoholic drinks.” My full Oxford English Dictionary says a “keg” is “a small barrel or cask, usually of less than 10 gallons” and dates its first usage to 1632. For “cask,” of the five sub-definitions, only the first is really relevant for our purposes (and it’s sense is said to appear only in England and its origin unclear). There are also two other separate casks listed, one a verb and the other an obsolete usage meaning “to crack” or “break in pieces” (and of Spanish origin). So definition #1 is “the general term for a wooden vessel of a cylindrical form, usually bulging in the middle, and of greater length than breadth, formed of curved staves bound together by hoops, with flat ends or ‘heads’; a barrel.” It was first used around 1525.

On the less credible side, Wiktionary calls a “keg” “a round wooden container that has a flat top and bottom, often used to store beer” and a “cask” is “a large barrel for the storage of liquid, especially of alcoholic drinks.” Webster, on the other hand, says a “keg” is “a small cask or barrel having a capacity of 30 gallons or less” and a “cask” is “a barrel-shaped vessel of staves, headings, and hoops usually for liquids.”

I accept that technically it’s most likely a cask, but I also have to conclude that in the ordinary sense a keg is just a small barrel and a cask a larger one. In simply writing out captions, quickly and in one take without giving it a great deal of thought, the container on the table looked relatively small to me so I referred to it as a keg, and I think in the context that’s acceptable, at least it is to me. It would, of course, be easier to just change it, since it doesn’t really matter to me all that much, but now that I’ve invested all this energy in looking into this, I think I’ll just leave it be for no good reason. But thanks, this has been fun.

In modern usage, certainly, a keg is not ordinarily considered to be a type of cask, or vice versa. Moreover, by far the *most common* type of keg in use (in Britain and I think across Europe) holds 11 gallons or 88 pints (pub cellars are full of them), so that brewing dictionary is very wrong.

Good revisiting our trip to “America’s best beer-drinking city!” Cheers!

Actually, my Dictionary of Beer & Brewing defines a “keg” as “a small cask usually with a capacity of 10 gallons or less.” It sure looks like a keg to me. The same dictionary defines a “cask” as “a barrel-shaped container for holding beer. It was originally made of iron-hooped wooden staves, but is now more commonly fond in stainless steel and aluminum. In England, casks are made in seven sizes: butt (108 gallons), puncheon (72 gal.), hogshead (54 gal.), barrel (36 gal.), kilderkin (18 gal.), firkin (9 gal.) and pin (4.5 gal.).”