What the firkin!
Jun0
That is a wee keg you have there!
Have you ever heard of the term “firkin?” Personally I had never heard of the term until this year’s Seattle Beer week. Granted I am fairly new to the beer geek world. So, I took it upon myself to do some research and post it here so maybe someone else won’t appear as ignorant. Sometimes you will see in pubs that serve craft beers that a beer is available only in a cask. Those pubs are saying two things:
1) It is a small amount of beer compared to a keg since cask beers almost always come in firkins.
2) That the beer was brewed cask-style (I will explain more about this in a later post).
A firkin actually indicates a size it usually means a fourth of a full keg, which means it is 9 gallons. There are other interesting terms that convey size as well they are:
- kilderkin (twice the size of a firkin)
- barrels (twice the size of a kilderkin, i.e. a keg)
- hogsheads (1.5 times larger than a keg)
- butts (three times the size of a hogshead)
- tuns (almost 8 kegs/barrels)
Well now you know different sizes that usually house liquid! You also know that when someone says there is a cask beer there isn’t that much there so you better get to the bar before it taps out 
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Beer Terminology : Imperial
May0
Have you ever noticed a beer that had a name starting with “imperial” sort of like “Imperial IPA” or “Imperial Pilsner” etc… Maybe you just wrote it off as just part of the name or maybe you were curious as to what it meant. Well this is my understanding (and I did a little bit of research to) of the imperial term. The first beer with this name comes from “Imperial Stout” also known as “Russian Imperial Stout” which was first brewed in 1796 (wiki page) for Catherine II of Russia. Mainly because the stouts coming from England would be bad by the time they got over to Russia so the brewers increased the alcohol content and malts to help preserve the beer. When pouring an imperial stout like Stone’s Imperial Russian Stout it is usually dark, thick and resembles a light-weight motor oil.
However, nowadays the imperial label is applied to all sorts of beers. Some people don’t like this and others don’t care. I am on the don’t care side mainly because when someone uses the imperial label I understand what they are trying to convey. This beer has higher alcohol content and is a more robust beer. For instance if you drink an Imperial IPA (sometimes called a double IPA) it just means it is really, really hoppy (over 100 IBUs) and has a fairly high alcohol content.
So now you know when you run across the imperial label it just means you can get sauced faster (if that is your goal) or you will get overwhelmed. Personally I find these beers go well with really strong food like a very hearty chili or a spicy plate of wings.