Speak fluent beer

The beer glossary

80 terms from the brewhouse, the cellar and the bar, explained in plain English.

A

ABV: Alcohol by volume: the percentage of a beer's total volume that is ethanol.
ABW: Alcohol by weight: the percentage of a beer's mass that is alcohol. It's a smaller number than ABV for the same beer.
Adjunct: Any fermentable ingredient other than malted barley, such as corn, rice, oats, sugar or honey.
Attenuation: How much of the wort's sugar the yeast converts to alcohol and CO2, usually given as a percentage.

B

Barrel-Aging: Aging beer in wooden barrels, often ones that held spirits or wine, to add flavors like vanilla, oak and booze.
Biotransformation: When yeast chemically changes hop compounds during fermentation, creating new aromas.
Body: How full or thin a beer feels in the mouth, shaped by residual sugars, proteins and alcohol.
Bottle-Conditioning: Carbonating beer in the bottle by adding a little sugar and live yeast before sealing.
Brettanomyces: A wild yeast genus, nicknamed 'Brett', known for funky, earthy, barnyard and fruity flavors.
Brewpub: A pub or restaurant that brews its own beer on site and sells most of it there.

C

CAMRA: The Campaign for Real Ale, a UK consumer group founded in 1971 to protect cask ale and traditional pubs.
Cask Ale: Unfiltered, unpasteurized beer that finishes conditioning in the cask it's served from, usually drawn by hand pump.
Cellaring: Aging beer at steady, cool temperatures so strong or sour styles can develop over months or years.
Cold Crash: Chilling fermented beer to near freezing so yeast and haze drop out and the beer clears.
Collaboration Brew: A beer created jointly by two or more breweries, usually sharing recipes, ingredients and labels.
Conditioning: The maturation stage after main fermentation, when flavors smooth out and the beer carbonates and clears.
Contract Brewing: When one company's beer is brewed under agreement at another brewery's facility.
Craft Beer: Beer from a small, independent brewery. The exact definition varies by country and trade group.
Crowler: A large can filled with draft beer and sealed at the bar to take home.
Cryo Hops: Concentrated hop products made by separating lupulin from the leafy material at very low temperatures.

D

Decoction Mash: A mashing method in which part of the mash is removed, boiled and returned to raise the temperature and deepen malt flavor.
Diacetyl: A fermentation byproduct that tastes of butter or butterscotch. It's usually a flaw, though a little is accepted in some styles.
DMS: Dimethyl sulfide: a compound that smells like cooked corn, mostly coming from pale malts. Vigorous boiling drives it off.
Dry Hopping: Adding hops to beer after the boil, usually during or after fermentation, for aroma without much bitterness.

E

EBC: European Brewery Convention: an organization and the European color scale named after it. EBC values are roughly double SRM.
Esters: Fruity aroma compounds made by yeast, like the banana and pear notes found in many ales.

F

Fermentation: The process in which yeast eats sugars and turns them into alcohol, carbon dioxide and flavor compounds.
Final Gravity (FG): The density of beer after fermentation. Comparing it with OG shows how much sugar was fermented.
Firkin: A traditional cask holding 9 imperial gallons (about 41 liters), commonly used for cask ale.
Flight: A set of small tasting pours served together so you can compare several beers.
Flocculation: Yeast cells clumping together and settling out of beer. High-flocculating strains make clearer beer faster.

G

Grist: Malt and other grains that have been milled and are ready for mashing.
Growler: A refillable jug, often 64 US fl oz, used to carry draft beer home.
Gyle: A single batch of wort or beer. In the UK it also means unfermented wort used for priming.

H

Head Retention: How long a beer's foam lasts after it's poured.
Hop Back: A vessel filled with hops that hot wort passes through on its way to the chiller, adding fresh hop aroma.
Hop Creep: Extra fermentation set off when enzymes in dry hops release new fermentable sugars. It can raise ABV and cause over-carbonation.

I

IBU: International Bitterness Units: a lab measure of dissolved iso-alpha acids that roughly indicates how bitter a beer is.
IPA: India Pale Ale: a hop-forward pale ale family that includes English, West Coast, hazy and double versions.

K

Keg: A pressurized metal container for storing and serving draft beer.
Koelschip (Coolship): A wide, shallow open vessel where hot wort cools overnight and picks up wild microbes for spontaneous fermentation.
Krausen: The thick, rocky foam that forms on top of fermenting beer during the most active stage of fermentation.

L

Lacing: The rings of foam that cling to the inside of the glass as you drink.
Lager (verb): To store beer cold for an extended period so it matures and clears. From the German 'lagern', to store.
Lambic: A Belgian beer from the Brussels area made by spontaneous fermentation, often blended or aged on fruit.
Lautering: Separating the sweet liquid wort from the spent grain after mashing.
Lovibond: An older scale for grain and beer color that's still used for malt specs. It's close to SRM for beer.
Lupulin: The yellow, sticky glands inside hop cones that hold the resins and oils behind bitterness and aroma.

M

Macrobrewery: A very large-scale brewery or brewing company that produces beer for mass markets.
Malt: Grain, usually barley, that has been steeped, sprouted and dried to develop enzymes and flavor.
Mash: Soaking milled grain in hot water so enzymes turn its starches into fermentable sugars.
Mouthfeel: The physical sensations of a beer in the mouth, such as body, carbonation, creaminess and astringency.

N

Nanobrewery: A very small commercial brewery, usually brewing only a few barrels per batch.
Nitro: Beer served with a nitrogen-rich gas blend, which gives tiny bubbles, a creamy texture and a cascading head.
Noble Hops: Traditional European aroma hops: Hallertau Mittelfrüh, Tettnang, Spalt and Saaz.

O

Original Gravity (OG): The density of wort before fermentation. It shows how much sugar is available for the yeast to turn into alcohol.
Oxidation: Staling from exposure to oxygen, which often causes papery, cardboard or sherry-like flavors.

P

Phenols: Aroma compounds that can taste of clove, pepper or smoke. They're welcome in styles like hefeweizen and a flaw in others.
Pint: A serving size: 20 imperial fl oz (568 ml) in the UK, and usually 16 US fl oz (473 ml) in the US.
Pitching: Adding yeast to cooled wort to start fermentation.
Priming Sugar: A measured amount of sugar added at packaging so the yeast can create carbonation.

R

Randall: A filter chamber packed with hops or other ingredients that draft beer flows through on its way to the glass. Dogfish Head popularized it.
Reinheitsgebot: The Bavarian beer purity law of 1516, which limited beer ingredients to water, barley and hops. Yeast was added later.

S

Session Beer: A lower-alcohol beer, often around 4% ABV or less, easy enough to drink several of in one sitting.
Skunked: Describes beer spoiled by light, which breaks down hop compounds into a thiol that smells like skunk.
Snifter: A short-stemmed, wide-bowled glass that narrows at the top. It's used for strong, aromatic beers like barleywines and imperial stouts.
Sour Mash: Letting bacteria, usually Lactobacillus, sour the mash or wort before the boil to make a tart beer.
Sparge: Rinsing the grain bed with hot water after mashing to collect the remaining sugars.
Specific Gravity: A liquid's density relative to water (1.000), often just called gravity. Brewers use it to track sugar content before, during and after fermentation.
Spontaneous Fermentation: Fermentation started by wild yeast and bacteria from the environment, with no yeast pitched.
SRM: Standard Reference Method: the American scale for beer color, from pale straw (about 2) to black (40 and up).
Stein: A traditional German beer mug, often stoneware and sometimes with a hinged lid.

T

Tap Takeover: An event where one brewery's beers fill most or all of a bar's taps.
Trappist: Beer brewed within a Trappist monastery under monks' supervision, eligible for the 'Authentic Trappist Product' label.
Trub: The sediment of proteins, hop matter and dead yeast that settles out of wort and beer.
Tulip: A stemmed glass with a bulbous body and flared lip that traps aroma and supports the head. It's ideal for Belgian ales and IPAs.

W

Whirlpool: Swirling hot wort after the boil so solids gather in a central cone. Hops are often added here for aroma.
Wort: The sweet liquid drained from the mash, which is boiled with hops and then fermented into beer.

Y

Yeast Starter: A small batch of wort used to grow up yeast cells before pitching, for a healthier fermentation.

Z

Zymurgy: The branch of chemistry that studies fermentation, as in brewing and winemaking.