You have the hipster glasses and you drink IPA on the regular, but you don’t know your imperial from your session, find out some of the lingo used in the craft beer industry to widen your knowledge in your new found hoppy.

KNOWING THE INGREDIENTS

Malt: This is the starting point for beer, it is made from malted barley but more specifically beer is made from the fermented sugars extracted from the malted barley. The malts that brewers use are Lager Malts, Pale Malts, Vienna Malts, Munich Malts, Toasted, Roasted and Chocolate Malts.

Hops: A green climbing vine that produces a flower in the shape of a cone. After being harvested, the flowers are dried and then used to make beer lending its bitterness and aroma.

Wild Yeast: A type of yeast used to make sour and wild beer. Barrel-aged and Sour beers usually have wild yeast in it to produce different aromas.

Ale Yeast: This is a type of top fermenting yeast used to make ale which is fermented at warmer temperatures, almost close to room temperature.

Lager Yeast: A bottom fermenting yeast used to produce lager style beer, it ferments better at lower temperatures.

If you are looking for a more in-depth piece on the four key ingredients in craft beer, check this post out.

NEXT UP, MAKING THE BEER:

Mash: This is the brewer’s term for the hot water steeping process, usually at a certain temperature, which hydrates the barley, activates the enzymes and converts the grain starches into fermentable sugars.

Wort: It means unfermented beer and is the liquid extracted from the mash, think of it as a ‘beer starter’ it is the sweet, malty liquid that begins by converting the starches into sugar.

Boil: A step in the brewing process when the wort is boiled and hops are added. Boiling removes the active enzymes that were activated during the mash and sterilizes it. The boil typically lasts 60 minutes.

Aroma Hops: Hops that are added at the end of the boil to add less bitterness and more aroma.

Bittering Hops: These are added at the beginning of the boil to add more bitterness to the final product.

Wet Hopped: These beers are made using fresh hops that are not dried producing something unique.

Dry Hopped: This technique adds a lot of hop flavour without bitterness, they are added at the end of the boil during the transfer to the fermenter.

Fermentation: After the boil the wort is transferred to a fermenter where yeast is added to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol to create beer. Different yeast strains will result in different flavours in the beer.

Conditioning: The final step before you are able to drink and enjoy the beer! It is the process of maturing and carbonating it through natural conditioning in the cask, bottle or conditioning tank.

FINALLY, ENJOYING THE BEER:

Malty: Malts contribute to the mouthfeel and flavour of beer. The some of the most common descriptors for malt beers are sweet, toasty, biscuit and nutty.

There are four types of brewing malt: base, caramel/crystal, toasted and roasted, these are reached through kilning which is the process of heating the barley to develop the malty flavours.

Hoppy: It is a mix of flavour, aroma and bitterness that each variety of hop gives to the beers final taste. Each area of the world produces a different hop that gives off a different flavour. British hops are known for their earthy, fruity and herbal notes, American hops give off citrus notes and German and Czech hops are favoured for the spicy notes they add.

Mouthfeel: This is as simple as how the beer feels in your mouth. It can range from thin and watery to thick and silky.

Imperial: This connects back to the 1700’s when the Russian Imperial court commissioned an extra strong stout that was shipped from England to them. Over time this has translated in to beers that are bigger, stronger and hoppier than their counterparts that inspired them.

Session: A beer that is lower in ABV so is more suitable to be drunk over an extended period of time.

Now you know the craft beer lingo, grab yourself a case of beer and become the beer aficionado in your friend group.

Article Source – Flavourly