Any grain added to barley-malt for
beer-making., especially rice, corn and roasted malt.
Aerate
To dissolve or put air into a liquid.
Airlock
A device that lets CO2 escape from
the fermentor without letting outside air or contaminants in.
Alpha Acid
The primary bittering agent in hops. Also
known as humulone. Hops are rated by their percentage of alpha acid. The abbreviation for
alpha acid is "AA".
Aroma Hops
Hops noted for their aroma instead of their
bitterness. They are low in alpha acids, the resins that cause the bitterness in beer.
These are usually added towards the end of the boil, or used for dry-hopping. Examples
include Cascade, Hallertau and Tettnang.
Attenuation
The drop in specific gravity that takes place
as the wort ferments.
Barley
A cereal grain. When malted it is a primary
ingredient in beer.
Bittering Hops
Hops used to add bitterness to beer.
Blow-off Tube
Made of one-inch inside diameter vinyl tubing,
one end of a blow-off tube is stuck tightly into the neck of a carboy with the other end
stuck in a large jar of water. They are used when fermenting in five gallon carboys so
that the foam, or krausen, developed during fermentation is expelled into the jar. When
fermentation has slowed down and the krausen subsides, it should be replaced with an
airlock.
Bottom-Fermentation
Yeast that ferment on the bottom produce
light, lager style beers, common in the US.
Burton Salts
A mixture of salts and minerals designed to
mimic the chemistry of Burton-on-Trent, the birthplace of pale ale. A teaspoon per five
gallons is plenty to make soft or mild water reasonably similar to the water from the
brewing region.
Caramel Malt
Also known as crystal malt. A type of malt
made by heating, that adds color and flavor to beers.
Carbonation
Carbon dioxide gas dissolved in a liquid.
Conditioning
The process of maturing beers, in either keg
or bottle.
Conversion
The process of changing starch into sugar
during the mash. Enzymes in the mash break down the complex starch molecules into simpler
sugars.
Decoction
A method of mashing, traditionally used with
lagers and under-modified malts. The mash is started at a lower temperature, then a
portion of the mash is removed, boiled, and added back to the mash. This raises the mash
to the next temperature needed. Decoction mashing gives a beer a maltiness not achievable
with any other method.
Diastase
Starch-to-sugar-converting enzymes found in
barley after it has been malted.
Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS).
A powerful aromatic compound that creates a
sweet creamed-corn smell to lager mashes. In finished beer it creates a malty quality or,
at higher levels, the taste of cooked vegetables.
Ester
A chemical compound formed through the
oxidation of certain alcohol. The aromas of esters are fruity, and the smells we associate
with apples, bananas, etc., are in fact esters. A beer with an abundance of fruity flavor
and aroma is an estery beer. Ales tend to be estery. Beers fermented at too high of a
temperature can produce more esters than are desired.
Fermentation
When yeast consume sugar, they produce alcohol
and carbon dioxide. This process is known as fermentation.
Grist
The total amount of malt and grains used in a
recipe. Also known as a grain-bill.
Hops
A climbing vine, whose flower cones are used
to give beer its bitterness and aromas.
Hydrate
The opposite of dehydrate. Dry yeast is just
that, dry, and must be reconstituted with water before using for best results.
Hydrometer
A device used to measure the specific gravity
of a liquid. A hydrometer can tell a brewer how much residual sugar is in his or her wort,
thus predicting the strength of the finished product.
IBU
A measurement of bitterness in beer. Stands
for Intonation Bittering Units.
Kilning
Drying grains and hops or roasting them.
Krausen
The layer of foam created on top of fermenting
beer. Also refers to a portion of fermenting beer added to finished beer in order to cause
carbonation.
Light-struck
Beer will develop a skunky or catty taste when
exposed to light, especially sunlight. For this reason, beer should be put in brown glass
bottles.
Lovibond
A measurement of color, particularly in
brewing ingredients. Using lovibond, you can calculate your beer's color from its
ingredients. Lovibond is measured in degrees, and "17L" would be read as 17
degrees lovibond. The lovibond scale tops off at 40L, the color of black stout.
Malt
Germinated grain. Regular grain kernels are
not suitable for mashing by themselves. Malted grains have been soaked in water, allowed
to germinate, or start growing, and then dried and cured. This process creates the enzymes
responsible for converting starch to sugar, and makes the starch in the grain accessible
to those enzymes. Different malting and curing procedures create the wide variety of malts
available.
Maltiness
What grapes are to wine, grain is to beer.
Malt Extract
After mashing barley grains in 160+ degrees of
water and then removing the grains, the sweet water left behind is the malt extract.
Typically you will buy malt extract in a form anywhere from syrup to powder, which was
done by evaporation to provide easier handling and transport.
Mashing
A process of making beer from scratch. Instead
of using malt extract to make wort, mashing makes wort from the basic malt grains. The
grains are crushed, placed in an insulated container with pre-heated water, and left to
sit for an hour or so at about 150 degrees. This converts the starch in the grains to
fermentable sugars. Then the mash is slowly rinsed to extract the sugars. Once mashing is
complete, the rest of the brewing procedure is the same.
Milling
Term used for grinding or crushing grain.
Original Gravity
See specific Gravity.
Pitch
The process of adding yeast to wort to start
fermentation.
Priming
The process of adding sugar to finished beer
for bottling. The remaining yeast in the beer ferment this sugar to cause carbonation.
Racking
A fancy term for siphoning or transferring
beer from one container to another.
Smack Pack
A form of liquid yeast. They consist of a
pouch of liquid yeast with a smaller pouch of starter wort inside. When the smack pack is
"smacked", the inner pouch ruptures and the yeast begin growing in the starter.
The pack will expand to about two inches thick in a few days, ready for pitching.
Sparge
The process of rinsing sugars from the grain
bed after the mash. Sparging is also called lautering. Sparging is typically done in a
lauter tun, which holds the grain above a false bottom perforated with tiny holes. This
allows the liquid to gently flow through the grains. A common ailment in sparging is the
stuck-sparge. This results when the grain bed is clogged with sediment or gummy
substances, clogging the flow.
Specific Gravity
A measurement of density, where water has a
density of 1.000. Dissolved sugars will increase the density of water. Thus, specific
gravity will measure the amount of fermentable sugar present in wort. A gravity
measurement taken before fermentation starts is known as original gravity, while a
measurement taken after fermentation is known as terminal gravity, or final gravity. Worts
with a gravity over 1.075 are known as high-gravity worts.
Starter
A tiny portion of wort used to grow the yeast
to pitching proportions. A few hundred yeast cells taken from a slant would be overwhelmed
by five gallons of beer, so they are given a couple of ounces to chew on first, then a
quart, and finally, when they are numerous enough, added to the carboy of wort.
Smack-packs have their own starter wort included, and they can be pitched directly to the
carboy when ready.
Steeping
The process of soaking grains in hot water to
extract their flavor. This is different than mashing, as no conversion takes place.
Steeping is often used by extract brewers to add a multitude of malt flavors to their wort
without having to mash.
Torrified Grain
Adjunct grains that have been processed to
make them suitable for mashing. They resemble "puffed" breakfast cereals, such
as puffed wheat, rice puffs, etc.
