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Brew Monkey - Beer glossary Category: Food and Drink > Beer and brewing Date & country: 26/03/2011, UK Words: 156

AAU
Alpha Acid Units. A measurement of bitterness. AAU = hop AA% x Ounces added to the boil. This formula does not consider wort gravity, boil time and so on.

Abbey
Belgian ale, brewed in a commercial secular brewery.

ABV
Alcohol by volume. This is a measurement of the percent of alcohol present in a volume of liquid. To obtain this number take the original gravity and subtract the final gravity then multiply the answer by 131.25. One pound of fermentable sugar is approximately equal to 1% ABV in a 5 gallon batch. ABV = ABW x 1.25.

ABW
Alcohol by weight. This is a measurement of the percent of alcohol present in a volume of liquid. The percent is the number of grams of alcohol in 100 centiliters (e.g. 5%ABW equals 5 grams of alcohol/100 cl)

Acetaldehyde
A by-product of fermentation. It is recognized by an aroma of green apple.

Acid rest
A stage of the mashing process where phytase converts phytic acid to phosphoric acid to acidify the mash.

Adjunct
An unmalted fermentable ingredient, like honey or sugar. It is used to increase the alcohol or add to the flavor. Adjunct grains, like corn or rice, can be added to lighten the flavor of the beer.

Alcohol
A byproduct of fermentation. It is produced when yeast consumes the fermentable sugars. Alcohol is what causes intoxication. In the case of beverages we are talking about ethyl alcohol or ethanol (CH3CH2OH).

Ale
Ales are beers made with top fermenting yeast. They typically are fermented between 68-75

Alpha Acid
These come from the soft resin of the hop flower. They are made of humulone, ad-humulone and co-humulone.

Anaerobic
An organism that can live with out atmospheric oxygen.

Aroma Hops
Hops added at the end of the boil that add to the aroma of the beer.

Astringent
A dry, sometimes harsh taste which comes from errors in using the grain.

Attenuation
The percent of sugars consumed by yeast during fermentation.

Autolysis
The self digestion of a cell's body by its own enzymes.

Balling
A scale for measuring the specific gravity of a solution. Created by Carl Joseph Balling.

Balthazar
A bottle, 12 liters in capacity.

Barley
A cerel grain that is malted and used in the mash for making beer.

Barleywine
A high alcohol, quite malty, English style beer. Alcohol levels are usually between 8.5% and 12% ABV.

Barm
Liquid yeast appearing as froth on fermenting beer.

Barrel
A unit of measurement used by brewers in some countries. In Britain, a barrel holds 36 imperial gallons (1 imperial gallon = 4.5 liters), or 1.63 hectoliters. In the United States, a barrel holds 31.5 US gallons (1 US gallon = 3.8 liters), or 1.17 hectoliters.

Becher
Similar to a pub glass, but thinner walls and they stop angling out about 2/3 of the way up the glass and become straight at this point.

Berliner Weisse
A regional beer of northern Germany, pale, top-fermented, and made with wheat.

Biere de garde
French term that applies to a strong, bottle-conditioned ale that is designed to be laid down when fermenting.

Bittering Hops
Hops added to the boil with 45 60 minutes left. These are responsible for the bitterness of a beer.

Bock
A very strong lager traditionally brewed in winter to celebrate the coming spring. Full-bodied, malty, well-hopped.

Body
The feel of thickness of a liquid in the mouth.

Bottle Conditioning
Beer bottled without removing the yeast or having been pasteurized. Yeast and sediment are present in the bottle. Beer packaged this way can grow more complex over time.

Brew Kettle
The vessel that the boil takes place in.

Brewpub
A pub that makes its own beer and sells at least 50% on premesis.

Bright beer
Finished beer that is prepared to be bottled or kegged and served. The last stage in the brewing process before packaging.

Brown ale
A British-style, top-fermented beer which is lightly hopped and flavored with roasted and caramel malt.

Bung
A rubber or wood stopper that seals the bunghole.

Bunghole
A hole in a barrel, keg, or cask from where liquid is drawn.

Candi sugar
Candi sugar is made by superheating and then cooling a highly concentrated sugar solution. Pale candi syrup is much darker than sucrose or invert sugar syrup. Belgian brewers prefer to use candi sugar, in either solid or syrup form, because it contributes to good head retention in a high-gravity, lightly hopped beer.

Cane sugar
Sucrose, or white table sugar is a highly fermentable sugar, usually refined from sugar cane or sugar beets. In brewing, cane sugar is sometimes used as an adjunct because it is cheaper than malt. It lightens the color and body of the beer, boosts the alcohol content, and can add a cidery taste that is considered not true beer flavor.

Caramel malt
A sweet, coppery malt which imparts both color and flavor to beer. Gives a golden color and a nutlike flavor to beer. Used frequently in darker ales

Carbonation
The "fizz" or effervescence in a liquid. The carbonation is a byproduct of yeast eating fermentable sugars (which releases carbon dioxide) if this happens in a closed container the beer reabsorbs the carbon dioxide in the form or carbonation. Carbonation can be also forced into a beer by adding pressurized carbon dioxide in a closed vessel.

Carboy
What homebrewers call the container that the fermentation takes place in. Usually made of glass and can come in a few different sizes, with the most popular being 5 gallons.

Cask
A container for beer that is sealed. They can be wood or metal.

Cask Conditioned Ale
See cask conditioning. It is usually poured via gravity or a hand pump, not via CO2. It may seem flat compared to "regular" beers. The beer is also called living beer as the yeast is still active in the brew.

Cask Conditioning
After ale has gone through primary fermentation, then run through a filter. It is transferred into a cask where more yeast is added and a secondary fermentation takes place. A fining material is added to settle out the yeast.

Centrifugation
A clarification method using centrifugal force to strain and clarify the wort during its cooling stage and the finished beer prior to racking.

Chalice
These are typically for Belgian abbey and trappist style beer. They can have a look of royalty about them. They can be more "V" shaped with either straight or an inward curving top, sometimes rimmed with a precious metal. The stem is thick and the length is usually rather short.

Chill Haze
A cloudiness that appears in beer when it gets cold. It is a result of proteins and polyphenols combining as a result of hydrogen bonding. The haze disappears as the beer warms up.

Chill Proof
By adding certain clarifiers to beer, it prevents chill haze by precipitating out the haze causing agents.

Chocolate malt
Malted barley that has been roasted to a deep brown color. It gives a nutty, toasted flavor to beers as well as deep reddish brown color.

Cold filter
As an alternative to pasteurizing, beer can be passed through a filter fine enough to remove the suspended yeast and so stop fermentation. Preserving more beer flavor than pasteurization, cold-filtered beers are often incorrectly called "draught".

Craft beer
Beers made by small, independent brewers with only traditional brewing ingredients such as malt, hops, yeast and water, and brewed with traditional brewing methods.

Crystal malt
When fresh malt is carefully dried at warm temperatures, some of the starches are converted to sugars which crystallize within the grains. When these crystal malts are used in brewing, they add sweetness, body and a reddish gold color to the beer.

Decoction
Exhaustive system of mashing in which portions of the wort are removed, heated, then returned to the original vessel.

Dextrin
The unfermentable carbohydrate produced by the enzymes in barley.

Diacetyl
A natural byproduct of yeast. It can have the flavors of butter or butterscotch.

DMS
Dimethyl Sulfide.

Dortmunder
A gold-colored, bottom-fermented beer from Dortmund, Germany's largest brewing city.

Dosage
The adding of yeast right before the bottle conditioning of a beer. This is also done with champagne.

Double bock/dopplebock
A stronger bock beer, though not necessarily double the strength. The original of the style was brewed by the Italian monks of the order of St. Francis of Paula in Bavaria to help them though their Lenten fast

Double Magnum
A bottle, 3.0 liters in capacity.

Draught/draft
Beer that is served from the cask, keg or barrel. Draught can be pasteurized, filtered or cask-conditioned, but bottled or canned beer is not, by definition, draught. The word means "drawn" or pulled from the cask by a pump.

Dry beer
In the late 80's, Asahi Brewery of Japan refined a brewing process that fermented virtually all the sugars in their beer. Described as having less aftertaste, it actually had almost no taste at all. It sold well, though, so major breweries around the world began brewing "Dry Beers" of their own

Dry Hopping
Adding hops after the boil or even in the cask to increase hop aroma and flavor. This is most often seen in various types of ales, but not in lagers.

Dry stout
The Irish version of stout, slightly more bitter and higher in alcohol than the English sweet stout.

Dunkle
This is a term used mainly in describing German wheat beer. It means dark

Estery
Aroma or flavor or fruit or flowers in beer. This can be caused by certain yeast strains or higher temperature fermentation.

Ethanol or Ethyl Alcohol
Colorless liquid at room temperature. It has a boiling point of 78

Fermentation
The reaction of the yeast consuming the sugars in wort in the case of beer. This process creates ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Final Gravity
The specific gravity after fermentation has taken place.

Fining
Materials added to beer during secondary fermentation to help settle out the yeast and other particulates. These materials can be isinglass, gelatin, Irish moss, and others.

Finishing Hops
Hops added near the end or after the boil to add aroma and flavor. They do not tend to add bitterness.

Firkin
Unit of measure. 1 Firkin = 9 Imperial Gallons.

Flocculation
The clumping, gathering or fallout of yeast cells after fermentation. Different yeast strains have different levels of flocculation.

Flute
Typically seen with champagne. Beer flutes have shorter stems than champagne flutes. The mouth has a smaller diameter than the mid section to hold in carbonation.

Goblet
Goblets can resemble a fishbowl. Typically they have a round bowl and come in various sizes. They are somewhat like a brandy or cognac snifter. Use these for high alcohol sipping beers.

Grist
A term for milled grain(s).

Gueuze
A blend of aged and young lambic ale.

Hard Cider
Fermented beverage made from apples.

Heat Exchanger
A device to rapidly cool wort. Usually copper tubing that has cold water running through it. Sometimes 2 tubes, one inside the other, with wort going through one and cold water going through the other.

Hefe
German word for yeast.

Helle
This is a term used mainly in describing German wheat beer. It means pale

Hogshead
A cask that holds 54 imperial gallons.

Hops
Hops come from the Humulis Lupulus plant or vine. It is the female flower that is used in brewing. They come in several forms, whole, pellet and plug. Hops are what makes beer bitter. There are volumes written on hops, if you are interested, there is plen

Hydrometer
A device that measures specific gravity (SG) of a liquid. Hydrometers are usually calibrated for measurements at 60

IBU
International Bitterness Unit. It is a number that denotes the bitterness of the beer. The higher the IBU the more bitter the beer. IBU = Ounces of Hops x AA% x Utilization% / Gallons x 1.34

Imperial
1. A bottle, 6 liters in capacity.

Infusion
Soaking or steeping grains in water or wort to transfer the flavors from the grain.

IPA
India Pale Ale. A strong, hoppy Pale ale. The style originated in Britain in the 19th century, and had a high alcohol content and hopping rate, allowing it to survive the long sea voyage to India.

Jeroboam
There are several sizes of Jeroboams: 3.0L, 4.5L and 5.0L. Typically the 3L size is used for sparkling wine, and the 4.5L is for red wine.

Keg
A large metal (stainless steel) vessel that contains beer. They come in several sizes, 2.5 gallon, 5 gallon, 7.75 gallon and 15.5 gallon. Import kegs come are usually 13.2 gallons (50 liters).

Kilderkin
Unit of measure. 1 Kilderkin = 18 Imperial Gallons

Kolsch
Looks like a cylinder. The kolsch glass has straight sides and is tall. Holds 12 oz.

Krug
The only beer glass with a handle. Typically very heavy and sturdy. They can have different textures and come in different sizes. Also called a mug or seidel.

Lager
Beer made with bottom fermenting yeast. Lager is fermented at lower temperatures and usually takes longer to ferment than ales. Since the fermentation is at low temperatures, the yeast byproducts are reduced and a cleaner more crisp beer is the result.

Lagering
The process of aging beer at low temperatures, usually under 50

Lambic
A traditionally Belgian brew that is typically sour. It is usually fruit flavored (peach, raspberry, cassis, cherry) and fermented with wild yeast and several types of bacteria.

Lauter
To drain the wort to the mash tun.

Lauter Tun
A vessel where mash settles and grains are strained out of the sweet wort.

Light Struck
The result of exposure of beer to light and heat. It is recognizable by a skunky smell.

Liquor
The brewer's word for water used in the brewing process, as included in the mash or, used to sparge the grains after mashing.

Lovibond
A measurement of color. The scale starts at 0 (zero) and goes to over 500. The higher the number the darker the color.

Lupulin
A yellow resinous powder found on the female hop cone that contains the bittering principle used in making beer.