Here are some terms that describe the ingredients, equipment and processes necessary to make beer at home.
Lactose: Milk sugar unfermentable by beer yeast. Often used to make Sweet Stout.
Lauter(ing): From the German word that means to clarify; separating the wort from the grain by using a straining apparatus (a lauter tun).
Lovibond: A system of color measure-ment for grain, wort, and beer that assigns numbers to color depth; the scale runs from 0 to 500+. It’s gradually being replaced by the Standard Reference Method (SRM).
Malt: Grain (barley, wheat) that undergoes the malting procedure.
Malt extract: Sweet wort that’s reduced and concentrated to syrup or powder by dehydration.
Mash: The collective name for grist infused with water.
Mashing: The process of infusing malted grain with hot water to extract the soluble sugars and proteins needed to make beer. The syrupy-sweet liquid that results from mashing the grain is called wort.
Mead: An ancient drink made from fermented honey.
Modification: The degree to which grain is malted; the more modified the grain is, the more starches are available for conversion to sugars during the mashing process.
Noble hops: Varieties from Germany and central Europe, including Hallertauer, Tettnanger, Styrian, Saaz, and Spalt.
Perry: An ancient drink made from fermented pear juice.
pH: Stands for parts hydrogen/percent hydrion (take your pick). A 14-point logarithmic scale used to express the level of acidity or alkalinity in liquids. (A pH of 7 is neutral.)
Pitch: To add yeast to wort.
Plato: The liquid-density scale invented by Carl Balling was later corrected and modified by a Dr. Plato of the German Imperial Commission; the Balling scale now reads in degrees Plato.
Prime(ing): Adding additional fermentable material (usually corn sugar) to an enclosed vessel to induce a secondary fermentation and carbonation.
Propagate: To multiply by natural reproduction; to increase in number, as in yeast propagation.
Protein: Complex organic molecules found in all living things. Proteins break down and precipitate during the mashing, boiling, and cooling phases of the brewing process.
Protein rest: A temperature rest during the mashing process that you use to eliminate chill haze in the finished beer (typically 20 minutes at 125° F).
Racking: Transferring beer from one vessel to another to avoid off-flavors caused by yeast and trub.
Runnings: Diluted wort that you drain from the grain bed during the sparging process (first runnings, second runnings, and so on).
Runoff: The wort that you drain from the mash at the beginning of the sparging process.
Slurry: A suspension of a solid in a liquid; a high concentration of yeast cells in solution.
Sparge(ing): Spraying hot water on the grain bed to recover malt sugars remaining in grain husks.
Specialty grain: Grains that you use to add flavor and color enhancements to beer without adding measurable fermentable sugars. Without specialty grains, few individual beer styles would exist.
Specific Gravity: One of two basic scales found on hydrometers, which you use to measure the density of beer. Abbreviation: sp. gr. (See also Balling.)
SRM: Standard Reference Method. A measurement of beer color achieved by using a spectrophotometer (similar to, but more precise than, the old Lovibond scale).
Starch: Complex carbohydrates converted to sugar during the mashing process.
Trub: Coagulated protein, oils, and tannins produced during the boiling and cooling phases of beer production. Also called hot break and cold break.
Tun: A vessel for holding liquids, such as a mash tun or a lauter tun.
Underlet: Adding water below the grain bed during the sparging process to facilitate a more controlled and thorough sparge. Underletting keeps the grain bed from compacting down upon itself by causing the grain to float.
Wort: The syrupy-sweet liquid that results from mashing the grain; unfermented beer.
Zymurgy: the science of fermentation.
For more homebrewing terms, A through I, click here.
Marty Nachel - Marty Nachel is a freelance writer, a published author, a certified beer judge and an award-winning homebrewer. His book titles include ...
Join the Conversation