Beer Terms
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| Adjuncts |
Fermentable ingredients and flavorings other than malted
barley such as rice, corn, brewing sugar and herbs. |
| Ale |
Worlds oldest style of beer that is top fermented, usually
at 60-70°F. |
| Alt beer |
"Old" in German, a top fermenting style of
German beer. |
| Bitter |
Term for 'pale' type beers that use generous amounts
of hops; commonly found in pale ales, or India pale ales. |
| Bock |
Strong beer, origin in Germany and the Netherlands. |
| Bottle-conditioned |
A beer that undergoes a secondary ferment in the bottle. |
| Caramel malt |
A reddish-tinged malt that imparts a good sweet
"nutty and chewy" flavor to finished beer. The type used
in lager brewing is called caramalt. |
| Corn Syrup |
An adjunct used to increase carbonation in finishing beers
and also to increase alcohol content. |
| Draft Beer |
Beer stored and drawn from kegs. |
| Ester |
Flavour compounds made by the yeast turning the malt
sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Esters may be fruity or
spicy. |
| Grist |
The coarse powder made from malt that has been crushed or
'milled' in the brewery prior to mashing. |
| Hallertauer |
A popular hops, originating in Germany. |
| Hops |
A bitter, oily herb used to flavor beer and prevent
spoilage. It is related to the Cannabis and Nettle family. Amount
and variety of hops used has a great impact on the sweetness or
bitterness of the taste. |
| Hydrometer |
Device to measure the specific gravity of the wort and
beer, before and after brewing, to determine the alcohol content,
and also to determine how much sugar has been converted to alcohol. |
| India Pale Ale |
Also known as IPA, a highly hopped beer developed by the
Brits for shipment to India; the highly hopped brew would survive
transport and keep well for their troops. |
| Lager |
A brew that undergoes a secondary 'cold' fermenting
process; from the German word meaning 'store'. The
cold-conditioning encourages the yeast to settle out, increases
carbonation, and produces a smooth, clean-tasting beer. |
| Lambic |
Of Belgian origin, a beer made by spontaneous
fermentation. Often includes fruits as adjuncts. |
| Malt |
Barley and other grains that have been partially
germinated, then dried, to allow starches to be converted to usable
sugar. |
| Nitrogen gas |
An adjunct used to promote a foaming head in some kegged
beer, and now, with new technologies, in some bottles and cans (Guiness). |
| Pilsner |
Or Pilsner or Pils, an international brand name for a
light lager. In the Czech republic, the term is meant only for beers
brewed in Pilsen or Pilzen where the style was perfected. |
| Porter |
Dark brown or black beer originating in London; its name
comes from the street-market porters who originally drank it. |
| Sparging |
A process of rinsing the malted grain to remove any
remaining malt sugars. From the French work esparger,
"to sprinkle". |
| Stout |
Once an English term to mean the "stoutest" beer
of a brewery; early origins identified it with porter style beer.
Now generally considered an Irish style of a sweet, very dark and rich
beer. |
| Trappist |
Ales brewed by monks originally of the Trappist order now
mostly located in Belgium; known for their old open fermented
yeasts. A subject of itself; try a Chimay "blue" for an
explanation. |
| Wheat beer |
Beers blended with wheat grains typically have a
distinctive fruitier tartness; usually utilized with low-hopped malts. |
| Wort |
The liquid resulting from sparging, or rinsing of the malt
with water to come up with a fermentable sugar solution. The wort
is heated to destroy bacteria, then cooled and mixed with yeast to
attain the desired outcome of beer. |
| Yeast |
The bacteria that converts the malt sugar to alcohol, used
by chance until the 18th century, when specific types of yeast became
cultivated for brewing |
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