Brewing Glossary

Not everyone brews beer, and not everyone wants to. And that’s okay! If you don’t, but are still entertained by our exploits (or you have those friends that won’t shut up about brewing and you have no idea what they’re talking about), here’s a quick cheat sheet for some of the brewing terms you may see around here.

ABV – Alcohol by Volume.

BBL – Also called a "barrel", refers to 31 gallons of beer.  A typical keg is half of a barrel, so 15.5 gallons.  When a brewer has "a __ barrel system", that simply means they brew double that number of kegs at a time.

Boil-over – Probably the highest potential for comedy (if it’s not you) or tragedy (if it is you) on a brew day. When the hot break wins and the wort starts boiling over the sides of the brew kettle.

Fermentation – process by which the yeast organisms consume the sugars in the wort and excrete alcohol and CO2.

Fermentor – vessel in which fermentation takes place. Ranges from a 6 gallon bucket for hombrewers, to large, conical bottom, stainless steel tanks for commercial brewers. Primary fermentor is typically where the bulk of the sugar-to-alcohol conversion takes place. Secondary fermentor is typically just another vessel where beer can be placed to age a little more, and sometimes to add more hops or other flavors.

Gravity – or, technically, specific gravity, a measure of the density of a liquid relative to water (i.e. water has a gravity of 1.000). The difference in gravities before and after fermentation allow the brewer to determine how much of the sugar was consumed by the yeast, and thus ABV.

Head – that thing on top of your shoulders. Oh, and the foam on top of beer.

Hot Break – One of the more exciting parts of the brew session. When the wort comes to a boil and the
hops are added, there is a visible breakdown of some of the proteins in the wort. This manifests itself as an angry green monster threatening to overtake the sides of the brewpot, and requires combat via temperature control and vigorous stirring until it settles down.

Hydrometer – simple device used to measure specific gravity.

Lacing – the pattern that a beer’s head sometimes leaves behind on an empty glass.

Lauter – The process of rinsing the grains after the mash in order to collect the wort used in the boil. Also known as Sparge.

Lauter Tun – Vessel used for the lautering process. Some homebrewers use a hybrid mash and lauter tun and do not require an additional vessel.

Malt Extract – a concentrate of the sugary goodness that is obtained from mashing. Comes in liquid and powder forms and allows homebrewers to create great beer without having to mash the grains. When combined with hot water creates wort.

Mash – The process of soaking malted barley in hot water for a period of time (usually an hour) to extract the fermentable sugars from the grains.

Mash Tun – Vessel where the mash takes place. Varies in size/shape from beverage coolers for homebrewers to large, steam jacketed stainless steel tanks for commercial breweries.

Second Runnings – When brewing a beer with a high target ABV, and thus a large amount of grain used, often when enough wort has been collected for the primary beer, the remaining wort is of sufficient gravity to make an entirely new beer. Second runnings refers to this “leftover” wort.

Strike Water – The hot water added at the beginning of the mash.

Wort – Basically, unfermented beer. Can refer to the liquid extracted from the mash through lautering and the liquid during and after the hop additions and boil.

Brewing 101

Believe it or not, beer as we know it is comprised of four basic ingredients.  With those four basic ingredients, one can make any style of beer.  Toss in some extra ingredients like fruits and spices and the combinations are endless.  Here, we will explore the contributions that each of the ingredients makes to the beer and the general process used in brewing your favorite pint.

First, what are the big four? 

Malted barley is simply grain that has been sprouted and then dried in a kiln.  The type of grain and the amount of time it spends in the kiln have a lot to do with the flavor, color, and aroma of the end product.  The longer grain is roasted, the darker it becomes.  Darker grains, naturally, give the beer a darker color and often imbue the beer with coffee, chocolate, and roasted flavors.

Water is—wait, I think you’ve got this one.

Hops are the flower of the hop plant, which look kind of like tiny green pinecones.  When the malted barley is added to the water, it releases sugars.  Hops bring a bitterness to the beer, which is primarily used to balance the sweetness of the malt and produce a beer that tastes like beer.  In some styles of beer, such as IPAs, more hops are added throughout the brewing process to add the flavors and aromas of the hops to the beer itself. 

Yeast is a single-celled organism that is primarily responsible for turning beer into beer.  The yeast eats the sugars that come from the malted barley and converts them into two very important waste products:  alcohol and CO2.  Without the yeast, beer is just hop and grain tea.

Now that we’ve got that, how do they come together to make beer?  While we’re at it, we’ll define some of those beer terms that nerds like us throw out from time to time. 

The first step in brewing is called the mash.  This is when the malted barley (which has been milled so that each grain is cracked open) is added to hot water and allowed to soak at a constant temperature for usually an hour.  There is a ton of science that happens here, but the cliff notes version is that during this time, the water extracts sugars from the malted barley.

After an hour is up, the grain is rinsed with more hot water.  This process is called sparging (or lautering if you prefer).  During the sparge, the sugars that were extracted during the mash are rinsed off of the grain bed and drained out into a different vessel.

Now, the liquid is called wort.  This is basically beer before it’s beer.  The wort is then brought to a boil.  Boil times vary, but most beers are boiled for an hour.  During this time, hops are added to the wort.  The timing and variety of hop are specific to each beer and important to how it turns out.

Once an hour is up and the hops have been added at various points during the boil, the wort is quickly cooled to about room temperature.

After it reaches room temperature, the wort is transferred to a fermentor (the conical bottom tanks you tend to see at breweries) and the yeast is added.  At this point, it’s time to let nature do its thing.  A few days (or weeks, depending on the yeast) later you have beer!  All that’s left is to cool it, carbonate it, bottle, can or keg it, and drink up!