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| AAU's or Alpha Acid Units are a commonly used formulation made famous by Dave Line in The Big Book of Brewing (Amateur Winemaking, Andover, UK, 1974). Though not as accurate as determining IBU's, it provides a very good estimation for home brewers. The formula is found by adding the alpha acid percent per ounce of hops to be boiled for more than 15 minutes, divided by the number of gallons of beer to be made. |
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| Alcohol by volume (ABV) is an indication of how much alcohol (expressed as a percentage) is included in an alcoholic beverage. This measurement is assumed as the world standard. Another way of specifying the amount of alcohol is alcoholic proof. An "alcoholic proof" is roughly twice the alcohol by volume (although this does vary in some countries, see main page for more information). In some countries, alcohol by volume is referred to as degrees Gay-Lussac (after the French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac). |
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are sources of fermentable sugars other than malted grain. They serve a myriad of purposes, such as adding distinctive flavors, lightening color and body, and boosting alcohol content without affecting taste.
While some brewers refer to any ingredient other than water, malt, hops and yeast as an "adjunct", ingredients whose primary purpose is not to add fermentable sugars to the beer are dealt with separately, as flavoring agents or brewing additives. |
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| Aeration is the term brewers use to describe the process of adding dissolved oxygen to the wort once it is cooled but before the yeast is pitched. Aeration is of critical importance because the yeast need dissolved oxygen in order to thrive. A lack of dissolved oxygen can result in less than complete attenuation. |
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| is a division of the Brewers Association focused on homebrewers of beer, cider, and mead. The AHA was founded in 1978 by Charlie Papazian. The AHA runs the worlds largest homebrew competition and also organizes several homebrew events in the US and Canada. Gary Glass is the current director. The AHA publishes the magazine Zymurgy six times per year to all paid members. |
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| The overriding taste that you are left with after you swallow the beer. |
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| This is the smell that is given off by the beer. Many things contribute to the aroma of a beer. The grain, hops, yeast, and fermentation by-products are the main contributors to beer aroma. Many other factors can influence the aroma, or perception of aroma, such as glass shape, amount of carbonation, and other smells in the room that you are in. |
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| Attenuation is the amount of sugars converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast, usually expressed as a percentage. Attenuation figures can be expressed as "Apparent" or "Real" due to the fact that alcohol is less dense than water. A 1.050 wort fermented to 1.012 has an Apparent Attenuation of 75%, but a Real Attenuation of 63%. |
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| If a batch of beer, wine, mead, cider, or any other fermented beverage turns out too dry, the brewer can back sweeten the batch by an addition of unfermentable sugar. |
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| Achieving balance in a beer means that no one factor (bitterness, alcohol, sweetness) overpowers the others. |
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| The term Balanced System refers to a kegging system in which the serving pressure is allowed to dissipate as the beer is dispensed, thus preventing foaming. A balanced system is typically achieved through the length and thickness of the beverage lines; longer or narrower lines aid in reducing the pressure as the beer is dispensed. |
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| A scale measuring sugar in solution. Figures are given as a percentage of sugar by weight. A reading of 10 means the solution is 10% sugar by weight. Scale is interchangable with Brix. |
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| Barm, a word derived from the old English for yeast, is the foam, or scum, formed on the top of liquor when fermenting. It was used to leaven bread, or set up fermentation in a new batch of liquor. Barm, as a leaven, has also been made from ground millet combined with must out of wine-tubs. |
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| atch sparging is an old method that is undergoing a revival in homebrewing. In batch sparging, wort is drained from the tun in steps, followed by the addition of more hot water. Originally, a brewer would drain off the First Running and brew a high gravity barley wine from that wort. More water was added and a second batch of wort drained. This was used to make an ordinary beer. The third, and possible fourth, runnings were used for making small beers. |
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| are a component found in undermodified barley malt that cause stuck sparges and thick mouthfeel. Most modern, well-modified malts contain very few beta-glucans, and do not require a beta-glucan rest during the mash. |
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Povidone-iodine belongs to a class of antiseptics known as iodophores. These chemicals exert their antiseptic effect by slowly releasing iodine. Antiseptics (sometimes called germicides) are chemicals that kill or prevent the growth of micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa and bacterial spores.
Povidone iodine standardised antiseptic solution is an antiseptic skin cleanser used for major and minor surgical procedures. In the presence of blood, serum, purulent exudate and necrotic (dead) tissue, its action persists while the colour remains. |
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| Hops that are added at the beginning of the boil, and thus exert more bitterness than flavor or aroma. |
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| The Beer Judge Certification Program, or BJCP, is an organization dedicated to promoting beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. The most visible programs run by the BJCP are the BJCP beer style guidelines, which define the beer style categories used in many homebrewing competitions, and the BJCP exam, which is used to qualify judges for BJCP-sanctioned competitions. |
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| The most popular beer style in the world, Pale Lager is a dry, crisp lager with very little flavor and a light body; it is brewed to be refreshing and easy-drinking rather than flavorful and is often brewed with a substantial amount of adjunct grains, especially maize and rice. However, some beers brewed in this style can be all-malt as well. |
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| A beer's "body" refers to its weight on the palate, or how thick/thin it feels in your mouth. Body is generally dictated by how much unfermented sugar remains in the finished beer; the more sugar, the heavier the body. |
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| A boilover is essentially when the wort you are boiling foams up and spills over the top of your kettle. At the beginning of the boil, hot break forms and begins foaming. To avoid a boilover, the heat needs to be reduced. |
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| The purpose of priming your beer with sugar is to give the yeast some fermentables to create CO2 for beer carbonation. Due to the fermentation process there will already be a significant amount of CO2 already in your beer (somewhere from 1-1.5 volumes), this last addition of CO2 is to ensure bubbles will be in the final product. |
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| A bottling bucket is essentially the same as the bucket fermenter. It is often equipped with a spigot to allow for easy filling of bottles without the need of a siphon. |
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| To Lager is to store beer for relatively long periods at cold temperatures after the end of fermentation. However, in modern usage, lager is used to describe any beer or beer style brewed with bottom-fermented or lager yeast. Lager is a derivation of a German word, lagern, originally meaning "to store." The original lager styles were the result of long-term storage in caves far beneath the ground. |
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often called Brett for short, is a genus of yeast consisting of multiple species found naturally in wood. Brettanomyces contributes distinctive flavors to the beverage it grows in. It gernerally considered an undesirable, spoiling infection by home brewers; however, its extreme, distinctive flavor and aroma is considered desirable in some sour beer styles, and at low levels it is depended on to add complexity to many styles of wine.
The flavor contributed by Brettanomyces is often called barnyard, but has also been described as gamy, or as smelling like damp wool, leather, wet fur, a sweaty saddle or horse blanket, or a butcher shop. |
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| The brew kettle or brew pot is the vessel in which the wort is boiled. It is typically made from aluminium, stainless steel, or enameled steel. |
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| A conditioning vessel used after fermentation has finished. Sometimes incorrectly called a Secondary Fermenter |
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A scale measuring sugar in solution expressed as a percentage by weight. Interchangeable with Balling.
To convert Brix to specific gravity, use this formula:
SG = 1.000898 + 0.003859118 * B + 0.00001370735 * B2 + 0.00000003742517 * B3 |
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Definition
Type: Water Agent
Use:
Mash Time: 60.0 min
Use for:
Water Agent Notes: Also known as brewing salts, it is a mixture of Gypsum, Potassium Chloride and *Epsom Salt. Used to harden water. |
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Definition
| Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is created as a byproduct by most strains of yeast. |
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| is created by dissolving carbon dioxide into the beer. This can be achieved in two ways: by adding extra sugar and yeast to the bottle, keg, or cask and allowing the yeast to create carbon dioxide through fermentation, or by forcing pressurized carbon dioxide into a container (usually a keg) and allowing it to dissolve into the beer (known as force carbonation. |
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| Different beer styles traditionally have different carbonation levels (see below), also known as Volumes. The level of carbonation in beer is a by-product of the temperature of the beer and the pounds per square inch (psi) of carbon dioxide applied to it. Carbonation levels will fluctuate if either the temperature or psi is changed. |
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| The glass Carboy is a common primary and secondary fermentation vessel. Ranging from 1 gallons to 6.5 gallons this versatile container is impervious to oxygen making it an ideal secondary fermenter. If being used as a primary fermenter it is suggested to use a blow off tube for the most vigorous part of the fermentation. Cleaning glass carboys can be tedious, but since they cannot easily be scratched they are very sanitary. Carboys should be kept in a dark place or covered, because light will prematurely "skunk" the beer. |
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| A rubber/plastic cap that fits over the lip of a carboy, and has two differently-size nipples to which airlocks and/or small-diameter blow-off tubes can be attached. |
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| occurs when too little water is added during the sparge to replace the water that is being drawn off. As a result, the grain bed becomes compacted, and water flows only through a few channels, rather than filtering through the grain bed. As a result, less of the grain is exposed to the wort, resulting in a lower specific gravity in the final wort. |
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Cicerone is a term which has been proposed by Ray Daniels as the beer equivalent of a sommelier for wine.
The Cicerone Certification Program
The Cicerone Certification Program, expected to be launched in October of 2007, is an examination and certification program designed by author Ray Daniels to develop the five elements he considers essential for those who serve and sell beer. These are:
Beer Storage, Sales and Service
Beer Styles and Culture
Beer Tasting and Flavors
Brewing Ingredients and Processes
Pairing Beer with Food |
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| Cold break is when protein in boiled wort coagulates and falls out of solution. This happens during the rapid cooling from boiling to fermentation temperature. |
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is the process by which starch in the brewing grain is converted into sugar which can be used by yeast in fermentation. Conversion is carried out by diastatic enzymes during the saccharification rest in the mashing process.
An iodine test can be used to determine whether conversion is complete. |
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Definition
| Large shallow wort cooling vessel, 20-30cm deep, usually made from copper. The hot wort is sprayed in, aerating it in the process, then let to air cool. Trub settles out as the cool break occurs and once the correct temperature is reached the cool wort is drained off to the fermenting vessel. |
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| short for "cultivated variety," is a genetically distinctive variety of a cultivated plant species. In homebrewing, cultivars are one way in which hop varieties are distinguished from each other. |
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| is a type of mash in which the various mash temperatures are achieved by removing part of the mash, boiling it in a separate vessel, and then using it as infusion water to heat the remainder of the mash. It is traditional in many continental European beer styles, especially in Germany and the Czech Republic. |
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Definition
Dextrose is another name for a form of glucose, a simple sugar (monosaccharide). Dextrose is often sold as "corn sugar", which is derived from cornstarch. Glucose is a sugar preferred by yeast and is thus very fermentable, fermenting quickly and leaving little to no residual flavor. For this reason, dextrose is often used for two main purposes:
Priming sugar
Drying out and/or increasing alcohol content of a beer |
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Definition
| Beer sometimes undergoes a diacetyl rest, in which its temperature is raised slightly for two or three days after fermentation is complete, to allow the yeast to absorb the diacetyl it produced earlier in the fermentation cycle. |
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Term
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Definition
Contains fermentable nitrogen (N) at 25g/HL = 50mg/L N and phosphorus. The chemical formula for DAP is (NH4)2HPO4.
For instance, a DAP addition of 1 g/L (8.3 lb/1,000 gal) provides about 258 mg/L fermentable N. |
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Term
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Definition
| is an organic sulfur compound present above its flavor threshold in most beers. Because of its low flavor threshold, 10 - 150 ppb, it is a primary flavor and aroma compound that makes a significant contribution to beer character, especially in lager beers. It has a characteristic taste and aroma of cooked corn or creamed corn. |
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Definition
| A dip tube in a keg is a tube attached to the liquid out post, extending to the bottom of the keg, typically made of stainless steel. This causes liquid dispensed from the keg to be taken from the very bottom, allowing almost all of the liquid in the keg to be dispensed. |
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| Dried Malt Extract, or DME is the result of removing nearly all of the water from the wort, producing a powdery extract that is easily reconstituted. It is produced by spraying the wort in a fine mist in a heated room with negative air pressure. The water in each droplet almost instantly evaporates, leaving a fine powder that is collected. DME is often referred to "Spray Malt" for this reason. One pound of base malt is equivalent to approximately 0.6 pounds of DME. |
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| can be mounted on a bar or small refrigerator for purposes of serving kegged beer. Towers typically come with one, two, four, or more faucets. |
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| The term refers to the practice of adding unboiled hops to the wort/beer at any point after it has been cooled. It is more akin to steeping than anything else. Since this method involves no heat, it extracts no bitterness; it is solely for the purpose of adding more hop aromas and flavors to the beer. Though this is the conventional wisdom among brewers, some bitterness from dry hopping may be possible in some situations. Alpha acid is not soluble in water at room temperature, but it is in ethanol. A strong beer that has already fermented may be able to take on more bitterness. |
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Definition
| Esters are undesirable compounds created by yeast when it is fermented a too high a temperature and produce bad fruit flavours and aromas. The most common esters are banana and apple. |
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Definition
| Ehtyl alcohol is the common scientific name for alcohol. It is also referred to as ethanol. |
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| Extract refers to the soluble wort components that were extracted from the grains through the mashing process. It mainly contains sugars, complex carbohydrates and proteins, but also vitamins, trace elements. Brewers express the amount of extract in wort or beer as weight percent, degree Plato or specifc gravity units. See Understanding Attenuation for a more complete description of this subject. |
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| piece of equipment that sits on the bottom of the mash tun to prevent grain from getting into the boil, which causes tannin extraction. No matter what type of manifold you use, its essential function is to filter. |
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is process by which yeast converts various simple sugars into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. It can take many forms, and only certain types of fermentation produce end results which are pleasant to drink. Chemically, the conversion by which yeast turns sugar into alcohol is:
Sugar → Alcohol + Carbon Dioxide + Energy
or, in chemical notation:
C6H12O6 → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 + energy
Yeast is also capable of producing energy aerobically (with oxygen extracted from the air) by the conversion: Sugar + Oxygen → Carbon Dioxide + Water + Energy |
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| In this method, after vorlauf, the wort runoff is begun and water is added to the mash tun at the same rate as the runoff. It’s important to go slow so as to extract the maximum amount of sugar and not compact the grainbed, which would stop the runoff. Lauter design is also highly important in fly sparging. Your lautering system must allow no channelling, or the sparge liquor will “drill” straight down through the grain bed in only one or 2 locations and leave the rest of the mash unrinsed. Because the buffering power of the grains in the mashtun is continually being diluted by the sparge water, it’s necessary to monitor the pH of the runoff. Too high a pH will cause the extraction of tannins and polyphenols, compromising the quality of the beer. To counteract this, it is often necessary to acidify the sparge water to keep the pH of the runoff below 6. Because the runoff may take an hour or more, many brewers do a mashout step in an attempt to denature the enzymes and prevent further conversion from taking place while the sparge is happening. However, this method will usually yield the highest extraction from the grain |
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| Foaming occurs during kegging when the serving pressure is not allowed to dissipate as the beer is being dispensed; it is highly undesirable when serving beer. |
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Definition
| is the practice of adding hops to the first runnings in the brew kettle. Unlike hops added during the boil, hops added to the warm wort appear not to lose their aroma and flavor characteristics when boiled, possibly due to chemical reactions which occur in the warm wort. The result is a beer which many tasters feel has superior hop flavor and aroma and a more pleasant bitterness than traditionally hopped beers. |
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Term
| Recirculating mash systems |
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Definition
| are brewing systems that incorporate a recirculating pump to maintain a stable temperature during a mash. The most common recirculating mash systems are RIMS and HERMS systems. |
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Definition
| Grist is synonymous with malt. The word is generally used in reference to milling or crushing grain, e.g. grist for the mill. Many brewers use the term Grain Mill and grist mill interchangably. |
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Definition
| A mineral used to adjust mash properties. |
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Definition
| The layer of foam on top of the beer, created by carbonation after pouring. |
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Definition
A container for holding or heating water (Liquor) for mashing, sparging and other uses.
These can be made from various containers. Kegs Coolers Plastic Buckets. |
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Definition
| In its simplest form a hop bag is a cotton or nylon mash bag that contains the hops and is added to the boil. It stops the hop matter blocking the syphon tube and/or entering the fermenter, resulting in clearer beer and easier cleanup. |
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Term
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Definition
| is the percentage measurement of hop's alpha acids "utilized" during the boiling process. This gives you a formulated number to measure the bitterness of a final beer known as IBU's (International Bittering units), AAU's (Alpha Acid Units), or HBU's (Home brew Bitterness Units). |
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Definition
| Hot break is the protein that coagulates as foam on top of the wort before the boil starts, and as it reaches a boil it "breaks" due to its collected mass and falls out to the bottom of the kettle. |
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Definition
| in technical terms refers to a large number of chemical reactions, including many involved in the brewing of fermented beverages. In brewing, however, it is most commonly used in brewing to refer to the creation of aldehydes through the oxidation of compounds in the wort, usually due to the introduction of oxygen at temperatures over about 80 degrees F |
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Definition
| A device for measuring the density of a liquid. |
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Definition
| International Bittering Units attempt to quantify the bitterness of beer. |
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Term
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Definition
| is a term sometimes used to describe a beer that is brewed to a significantly higher original gravity, and therefore a significantly higher alcohol content, than other beers in the same style. These beers are also sometimes called Double or Triple versions of the style as well. |
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Definition
| are caused by unwanted microbes interacting the fermenting wort. This interaction can cause unwanted off-flavors and run-away fermentations thus destroying the beer. Home brewers must practice good sanitation in order to prevent these infections. |
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Term
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Definition
| is the process of achieving your mash temperatures by adding measured amounts of water heated to carefully calculated temperatures to the mash. |
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Definition
| Kilns are a thermally insulated chambers, or ovens, in which a controlled temperature regimes are produced. They are used to harden, burn or dry materials. |
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Definition
| Knockout refers to the end of the boil. In other words, the point at which heat is removed from the wort. |
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Definition
is the term brewers use to describe the foam that forms on top of the wort during fermentation.
The alternate spelling krausen is also correct. |
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Definition
| Besides corn sugar and DME, beer can also be carbonated with unfermented or actively fermenting wort. This procedure is usually used by breweries that bottle ferment their beers. And the reason for this is simple: freshly fermenting wort is readily available in a brewery. |
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Definition
| Lactose is a disaccharide that consists of β-D-galactose and β-D-glucose molecules bonded through a β1-4 glycosidic linkage. Lactose makes up around 2-8% of the solids in milk. The name comes from the Latin word for milk, plus the -ose ending used to name sugars. |
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Definition
| Lag time is the time between the pitching of the yeast and when alcohol production begins. Before the yeast can begin producing alcohol, it goes through a process where it processes all the oxygen in the wort. During this process, the yeast multiplies and gains energy which is used during the alcohol production stage. It is during the period that the chances of infection are greatest. |
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Definition
hop is a hop cultivar which, through a long history of at least partly open-pollinated cultivation, has become particularly well-suited to the area in which is has traditionally been cultivated. For a full discussion of landrace hops, terroir, and the way landrace hops are referred to, see the hop varieties page.
Full descriptions of some landrace hop varieties are listed below. Other less common landrace hops include: |
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Definition
| Light strike is what happens to a beer when left out in the sun. The UV wavelengths react with the hop oils and 'skunk' the beer. There are some hop extracts that are made to avoid light strike (hence the increasing spread of clear and green beer bottles), but in a home brew setup it is best advised to avoid light strike wherever possible. |
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Definition
| Liquid Malt Extract, or LME, is the result of removing some, but not all of the water from the wort. It is a syrup and is available in hopped and unhopped forms. One pound of base malt is equivalent to approximately 0.75 pounds of LME. It can be packaged in cans, plastic containers, or sealed bags. While typically less expensive than dried extract, the main drawback of LME is the difficulty found in measuring and handling the thick, syrup-like substance. |
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Definition
| Malt extract is created through a process of mashing grain to make wort and then evaporating the water. The resulting extract can be added back to water later in order to create a new wort. |
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Definition
Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate and then are quickly dried before the plant develops. The term malt refers to several products of the process:
The grains to which this process has been applied, for example malted barley;
The sugar derived from such grains which is heavy in maltose, such as baker's malt,
A product, based on malted milk, similar to a malted milkshake (i.e., "malts"). |
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Term
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Definition
| is the brewing term for steeping malt and other grains in hot water in order to extract the starches from the grain and allow them to be converted into sugar. In all-grain brewing, the mash is where the wort is created. |
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Definition
A vessel used to contain grains and water in the process of converting the starches in the grain into sugar (mashing) and separating the wort from the grains (lauter).
For the homebrewer the MLT is most often a converted cooler used to hold the grain and water at mashing temperature but can be a kettle which uses heat to keep the grain/water mixture at temperature. After conversion is complete, the wort is separated from the grains -- a process called lautering. |
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Definition
Mashing out is the process of raising the mash temperature to 170F. The goal being to halt any enzymatic activity and prevent further conversion of starches to sugars.
Mash-out is often left out of the batch sparging process as a large amount of 170F+ water will be added for the sparging process. |
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Term
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Definition
| Mouthfeel is the description of how an alcoholic beverage feels in your mouth. This can refer to the perceived thickness, astringency and body of the drink. |
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