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Basic Brewing Termanology

Posted by on June 12, 2013

brewtermsPreforming his last duty as our Secondary Fermentor (before being affectionately adorned “ass of the month”), Chris Wiken provided a list of basic brewing vocabulary to the group.  While this is not the exact list it should serve as a good reference point to FLOPS members.

This was taken from lovetobrew.com, and a more exhaustive list can be found on their website.

 

 

Basic Terms

Ale – A beer brewed from a top-fermenting yeast with a relatively short, warm fermentation.

Alpha Acid Units (AAU) – A homebrewing measurement of hops. Equal to the weight in ounces multiplied by the percent of alpha acids.

Attenuation – The degree of conversion of sugar to alcohol and CO2.

Beer – Any beverage made by fermenting a wort made from malted barley and seasoned with hops.

Cold Break – Proteins that coagulate and fall out of solution when the wort is rapidly cooled prior to pitching the yeast.

Conditioning – An aspect of secondary fermentation in which the yeast refine the flavors of the final beer. Conditioning continues in the bottle.

Fermentation – The total conversion of malt sugars to beer, defined here as three parts, adaptation, primary, and secondary.

Hops – Hop vines are grown in cool climates and brewers make use of the cone-like flowers. The dried cones are available in pellets, plugs, or whole.

Hot Break – Proteins that coagulate and fall out of solution during the wort boil.

Gravity – Like density, gravity describes the concentration of malt sugar in the wort. The specific gravity of water is 1.000 at 59F. Typical beer worts range from 1.035 – 1.055 before fermentation (Original Gravity).

International Bittering Units (IBU) – A more precise unit for measuring hops. Equal to the AAU multiplied by factors for percent utilization, wort volume and wort gravity.

Krausen (kroy-zen) – Used to refer to the foamy head that builds on top of the beer during fermentation. Also an advanced method of priming.

Lager – A beer brewed from a bottom-fermenting yeast and given a long cool fermentation.

Lag Phase – The period of adaptation and rapid aerobic growth of yeast upon pitching to the wort. The lag time typically lasts from 2-12 hours.

Pitching – Term for adding the yeast to the fermenter.

Primary Fermentation – The initial fermentation activity marked by the evolution of carbon dioxide and Krausen. Most of the total attenuation occurs during this phase.

Priming – The method of adding a small amount of fermentable sugar prior to bottling to give the beer carbonation.

Racking – The careful siphoning of the beer away from the trub.

Sanitize – To reduce microbial contaminants to insignificant levels.

Secondary Fermentation – A period of settling and conditioning of the beer after primary fermentation and before bottling.

Sterilize – To eliminate all forms of life, especially microorganisms, either by chemical or physical means.

Trub (trub or troob) – The sediment at the bottom of the fermenter consisting of hot and cold break material, hop bits, and dead yeast.

Wort (wart or wert) – The malt-sugar solution that is boiled prior to fermentation.

Zymurgy – The science of brewing and fermentation.