Preforming 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.
