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".
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.
The simplest way to make beer. Consists of a can of malt extract that is
pre-hopped with a pack of dry yeast under the lid. The usual procedure with these
kits is to pour the can into a plastic bucket with water, add one or two cans of
table sugar, and spinkle the yeast on top. This rarely results in a great beer.
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.
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.
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.
A chemical compound formed through the oxidation of certain alcohols. 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.
The opposite of dehydrate. Dry yeast is just that, dry, and must be
reconstituted with water before using for best results. Boil a cup of water, let it
cool to a lukewarm temperature, sprinkle the dry yeast on top, and cover with foil.
It will be ready to pitch in twenty minutes.
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.
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. If you want to
know what lightstruck beer tastes like, pick up a green glass bottle of Heineken or
Grolsch that has been sitting under flourescent lights in the store.
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, which is also the color of
Michelob Dark! The lovibond scale tops off at 40L, the color of black stout.
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
vailable.
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.
The process of adding yeast to wort to start fermentation. Yeast is not thrown
in the fermentor with an overhand throw like in baseball, but rather poured in by
hand.
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.
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 perferated 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.
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.
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.
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.
Adjunct grains that have been processed to make them suitable for mashing. They
resemble "puffed" breakfast cereals, such as puffed wheat, rice puffs, etc.