From Adjunct to Isomerization: Homebrewing Terms

The Peculiar Vernacular of Those Who Brew Beer at Home

Mar 19, 2009

In order to speak the language of those who brew their own beer at home --or at least to understand those who do-- it helps to know the vocabulary.

Here are some terms that describe the ingredients, equipment and processes necessary to make beer at home.

Adjunct: Any unmalted fermentable ingredient, such as honey or Belgian Candi sugar, that you add to beer; often used to add flavor or alcohol.

Adjunct grain: Any unmalted fermentable grain, such as corn or rice, that you add to beer; often used to lighten or cheapen the product.

Airlock: An inexpensive plastic device that enables carbon dioxide to exit the fermen-ter without contaminated air entering.

All grain: Refers to beers brewed with barley, barleymalt, and specialty grains and without extracts. Also used in reference to homebrewers who make their beer by using nothing but grain.

Alpha acid: One of two resins found in hop lupulin glands. Alpha acids convert to bitterness during the boiling process. (See also Beta acid.)

Attenuate: To make thin; to dilute. With regard to fermentation, this term refers to the yeast’s consumption of fermentable sugars, transforming them into alcohol and carbon-dioxide gas.

Balling: One of two basic scales found on hydrometers that is used to measure the density of beer, named for its inventor, Carl Joseph Balling. (See also Specific Gravity.)

Base grain: The major source and contributor of fermentable sugars, flavor, and overall beer character.

Bottle-conditioned: Aged and naturally carbonated in the bottle (by priming or reyeasting), as in homebrew.

Break: Precipitation of proteins and resins in the wort during boiling (hot break) and cooling (cold break). (See also Trub.)

Carboy: A large-volume (5–15-gallon) glass vessel typically used by homebrewers as fermenters and conditioning tanks.

Chill haze: A precipitation of proteinaceous matter and tannin molecules in beer if you cool it too quickly or for too long. (It then disappears after the beer warms.) You can reduce chill haze by using clarifying agents.

Conditioning: Maturation of beer; a slow process of clarifying and carbonating.

Decoction: A highly involved process of mashing that requires the removal of a portion of the mash to boil it; you then return the boiled portion to the mash tun. Decoction mashes are rarely done at the homebrewing level.

Dextrin: An unfermentable and almost tasteless carbohydrate derived from starches during the mashing process. Dextrins contribute body and mouthfeel to the finished beer.

Dry hop: The addition of hops directly to a vat of fermenting beer with the intent of imparting additional hop aroma to the finished beer.

Enzyme: An organic protein substance produced by living cells that acts as a catalyst for biological and biochemical changes, as in the mashing of grain.

Fermentation: The natural conversion of sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide gas by yeast.

Finings: Natural agents of beer clarification; Irish moss and isinglass are finings.

Finishing hops: Hops that you add to the kettle late in the boiling process, intended to imbue hop aroma rather than hop bitterness in the beer.

Fusel alcohol: Higher alcohols produced by certain yeast strains and at higher fermentation temperatures.

Gravity: Density or thickness of a liquid; a measure of the fermentable sugars in beer.

Husk: The protective outer surface of cereal grain. (Although wheat kernels don’t have husks.) You must crack the husks before steeping or mashing.

Hydrometer: A fragile glass instrument used for measuring the density of liquids.

Infusion: A simple, one-temperature mashing technique for making Ales. (See also Step infusion.)

Ion: An electrically charged component of a molecule. Molecules may break down into atoms — or clumps of atoms — each with its own polarity (positive or negative).

Irish moss: A natural fining agent that you use to clarify beer. (Also known as Chondrus Crispus and Carragheen.)

Isinglass: A natural fining agent that you use to clarify beer. (Isinglass derives from the swim bladders of sturgeon.)

Isomerize(ation): To make soluble (or to dissolve) the hop’s resins in liquid by boiling.

The copyright of the article From Adjunct to Isomerization: Homebrewing Terms in Beer Brewing is owned by Marty Nachel. Permission to republish From Adjunct to Isomerization: Homebrewing Terms in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.