If you thought wine had a lot of different terms and was hard to
get a grasp of, see what our good friend beer has:
Ale: Beer made with
top-fermenting yeast.
Altbier: German word for
'old beer'; this is the type of brewing that preceded lagers.
Barley Wine: A very
strong ale with alcohol usually twice that of strong beers.
Belgian Red Ale: A
refreshing ale from Flanders that derives its color from Vienna
malt.
Belgian Strong Ale: A
strong but not heavy style with a wine-like quality.
Bière de Garde: A
strong ale from France. Meant to be laid down or cellared.
Bière de Mars:
Light-bodied seasonal French ales.
Bittering hops: Varieties
of hops chosen to impart bitter and dry flavors.
Bock: German word for 'billy
goat'; refers to a strong beer. Bocks average well above 6.25%
alcohol by volume.
Bottom-Fermentation: How a
lager is brewed. Made with lager yeasts, the beer ferments at the
bottom of the tun, resulting in a clearer brew than top-fermented
beer (ale).
Brown Ale: A dark, sweet ale,
often brewed in England. Relatively low in alcohol.
Cask-Conditioning: Secondary
fermentation and maturation in the cask. Creates light
carbonation.
Doppelbock: German word for
'double bock'; usually very dark and sweet.
Dubbel: A high gravity
Belgian Abbey ale.
Dry-Hopping: The addition
of hops at a late stage.
Dunkel: German word
for 'dark'. Dark beers are sometimes referred to as 'dunkels'.
Eisbock: A doppelbock beer
that has been frozen and the ice is removed. This intensifies the
taste and alcohol level of the beverage left over (by removing
some of the water).
Erlanger: A dark German
lager from Erlangen.
Faro: A lambic beer that is
refermented with candy sugar.
Gueuze: A lambic that is a
mixture, not necessarily in equal parts, of old and young lambic
beers.
Hefe: German for 'yeast';
often identifies the beer as either sedimented or that has had
yeast added to it just before bottling.
Helles: A paler, but quite
strong, version of the Munich Dunkel.
Hops: The cones or flowers
of the female Humulus lupulus plant. They may be dried whole hops,
or may be used after being dried into pellets.
India Pale Ale (IPA): Originally
a bitter beer brewed in Britain by Bass and exported to soldiers
in India. An Indian Pale Ale has more hops than a traditional Pale
Ale. The extra hops were added in the years of the British
Empire so that the 'hopped up' beer would last the entire trip
from England to India.
Imperial Stout: A stout
brewed in England. It was originally brewed for the Czars and was
sent to St. Petersburg.
Kolsch: A strong but not
hoppy ale originally from Cologne.
Kriek: A lambic beer
made with cherries.
Lager: Beer that is
fermented cool using lager yeast and stored cold for a period of
weeks in order to give it a clean, smooth flavor.
Lagering: Maturation for
several weeks or months at cold temperatures (close to 0°C/32°F)
to settle residual yeasts, impart carbonation, and make for clean,
round flavors.
Lambic: A wheat beer, most
notably from Belgium, that is fermented with wild yeasts.
Maibock: A beer made in the
spring to celebrate the new season; usually light in color.
Malting: Process of turning
grain from starch to sugar, from which beer is then brewed.
Malt Liquor: Often
associated with cheap beers, these tend to be American ales that
range up to 7.5% alcohol by volume.
Märzen: German word for
'March'. A lager made in March for the coming Oktoberfest. Usually
a beer rich in malt flavors, and often amber-red in color.
Oktoberfest: See Märzen.
Original gravity:
A measure of the density of fermentable sugars in the mixture
of malt and water.
Pale Ale: A pale amber,
full-bodied, hoppy ale originating in Burton on Trent.
Pilsner/Pils: A lager,
usually light in color. It draws its name from the town of Pilsen,
in Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
Porter: Almost black,
porter is a bitter, dark lager. First brewed in England around the
1730's.
Rauchbier: “Smoke Beer”
made from malt cured in wood smoke.
Reinheitsgebot: "Purity
Law" originating in Bavaria and now applied to all German
brewers making beer for consumption in their own country. It
requires that only malted grains, hops, yeast and water may be
used in brewing.
Roggen: A rare Bavarian
weizen-style beer made from rye.
Saison: Top-fermented,
dry-hopped French country ales refermented in corked bottles.
Scotch Ale: A very dark,
strong ale. Many are brewed in Scotland, hence the name. Some
microbreweries have begun brewing this style of beer.
Schwarzbier: German for
'black beer'. A beer made famous in Kostritz, Germany, this is a
very, very dark beer.
Specific Gravity: A measure
of density. This measurement comparies the density of a given
volume of beer to that of the same volume of pure water.
Steinbier: A top-fermented
wheat beer brewed in Altenmunster, Germany.
Steam Beer: A product of
the California Gold Rush, steam beer was America's first real
addition to the craft of brewing.
Stout: A very dark, high
hop content ale. The most famous brewer of stout (and the
originator of this style) is Guinness, of Ireland.
Top-Fermenting: Describes
yeast that flocculates relatively early in the fermentation. The
flocculation is carried up into the head of foam in the wort by
CO2 bubbles.
Trappist: A
bottle-conditioned, sugar-added lager made by monks in only six
breweries in the world (five in Belgium, one in Holland). Others
attempt a Trappist-style beer, but only these six
monastery/breweries are allowed.
Tripel: Dutch, meaning 'a
brewer's strongest beer'. Can be a lager, but is most often an
ale.
Weisse/Weissebier: Wheat
beer. Often served with lemon, this is an ale of extremely light
color, mostly served during the summer. The beer is brewed with
mainly wheat malt.
Zymurgy: The science of
brewing and fermentation, a branch of chemistry.
Sources:
Michael Jackson's Beer Companion, Michael Jackson
The New World Guide To Beer, Michael Jackson
The Beer Enthusiast's Guide: Tasting & Judging Brews
from Around the World,
Gregg Smith
The Brewmaster’s Bible, Stephen Snyder
Beer Across America: A Regional Guide to Brewpubs and
Microbreweries, Marty
Nachel
Food & Wine Magazine's Official Wine Guide -1998-, Stephen
Tanzer
The Everything Beer Book, Carlo DeVito
