Convert Hogshead (hogshead) to Dram (dr) instantly.
About these units
Hogshead (hogshead)
A hogshead is a traditional barrel volume whose size varied by commodity, region, and era. In British and colonial American contexts, a hogshead for beer or ale was commonly 54 imperial gallons, while for wine it was 63 gallons. Hogsheads were central to colonial commerce, especially in the tobacco trade, where standardized hogsheads—large wooden barrels—became essential for shipping cured leaves across the Atlantic. These giant casks often doubled as storage containers, shipping crates, and even temporary furniture. While the hogshead is not used in modern measurement, it occupies a prominent place in historical literature, trade records, and maritime archaeology. Its enduring cultural footprint reflects the importance of cooperage (barrel-making) in pre-industrial economies.
Dram (dr)
The fluid dram is a small historical unit equal to 1/8 of a US fluid ounce or 3.6967 mL (US), with slightly different imperial values. It originated in apothecaries and early pharmaceutical texts, where drams measured potent liquid medicines, tinctures, and extracts. In daily life, drams appeared in old cocktail recipes, medicinal syrups, and household remedies. However, the inconsistency between US and UK drams, along with the rise of the metric system, pushed it out of modern use. Today, the dram survives mostly in whiskey culture—where a "dram" informally means a small pour, not a precise measurement—and in historical studies of medicine.