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.