Abbey
Commercial Belgian
beers licensed by abbeys. Not to be confused with Trappist ales.
Adjuncts
Materials, like rice,
corn and brewing sugar, used in place of traditional grains for cheapness or
lightness of flavor.
Ale
The oldest beer style
in the world. Produced by warm or top fermentation.
Alt
Dark brown
top-fermenting beer from Düsseldorf.
Alpha
acid
The main component of
the bittering agent in the hop flower.
Attenuation
The extent to which
brewing sugars turn to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Beer
Generic term for an
alcoholic drink made from grain. Includes both ale and lager.
Bitter
British term for the
pale, amber or copper-colored beers that developed from the pale ales in the
19th century.
Bock or Bok
Strong beer style of
The Netherlands and Germany.
Bottle-conditioned
Beer that undergoes a
secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Brew
kettle
See Copper
Cask-conditioned
Beer that undergoes a
secondary fermentation in the cask. Known as “real ale”, closely identified
with British beers.
Copper
Vessel used to boil
the sugary wort with hops.
Decoction
mashing
A system mainly used
in lager brewing in which portions of the wort are removed from the vessel,
heated to a higher temperature and then returned. Improves enzymic activity and
the conversion of starch to sugar in poorly modified malts.
Dry-hopping
The addition of a
small amount of hops to a cask of beer to improve aroma and bitterness.
Dunkel
A dark lager beer in
Germany, a Bavarian specialty that predates the first pale lagers.
Entire
The earliest form of
porter, short for “entire butt”.
Ester
Flavor compounds
produced by the action of yeast turning sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Esters may be fruity or spicy.
Fining
Substance that
clarifies beer, usually made from the swim bladder of sturgeon fish; also known
as isinglass.
Framboise or Frambozen
Raspberry-flavored
lambic beer.
Grist
The coarse powder
derived from malt that has been milled or “cracked” in the brewery prior to
mashing.
Gueuze
A blend of Belgian
lambic beers.
Helles or Hell
A pale Bavarian lager
beer.
Hop (Lat: Humulus Lupulus)
Herb used when brewing
to add aroma and bitterness.
IBU
International
Bitterness Units. An internationally-agreed scale for measuring the bitterness
of beer. A “lite” American lager may have around 10 IBU’s, an English mild ale
around 20 units, an India Pale Ale 40 or higher, an Irish stout 55 to 60 and
barley wine 65.
Infusion
Method of mashing used mainly in ale-brewing
where the grains are left to soak with pure water while starches convert to
sugar, usually carried out at a constant temperature.
Kölsch
Top-fermenting golden
beer from Cologne.
Kräusen
The addition of
partially-fermented wort during lagering to encourage a strong secondary
fermentation.
Kriek
Cherry-flavored lambic
beer.
