A Glossary of Beer Terms

Beer and Spirits
1

I am posting this mainly for my own reference…but hope others find it useful.

Glossary of Beer Terms

Brewing Ingredients
The German Purity Law lists beer ingredients as:

  • Water (the medium)
  • Malt (the base)
  • Yeast (the catalyst)
  • Hops (the stabilizers and flavoring agent)

Belgians and other distinctive craft brewers use spices, seeds, nuts, flowers, fruit, coffee, and many other flavors.
The legitimate grains for malt are: barley, wheat, rye, and oats. All others are considered adjunct (substandard), such as corn, rice, and other lesser grains.

Types of Beer
Lager and Pilsner are bottom fermented and are generally lighter and lower in alcohol.
Ale and Wheat Beer (Weiss) are top fermented and usually more full-flavored and higher in alcohol.
Stout and Porter can either be top or bottom fermented.

Belgian
Wit - Wheat beer which is unfiltered, usually with orange peel and coriander.
Blonde Ale - Light ale with medium alcohol.
Special Golden - Champagne-like with peppery hop finish and high alcohol
Dubbel - Double dark scotch style ale, usually with spices, high alcohol.
Flemish Red - Copper colored sour beer with wine-like qualities.
Lambic - Very sour brew that is spontaneously fermented by airborne yeasts. Sometimes fruit is added and it is slightly sweetened.
Abbey Beer - Recipe derived through medieval abbey, but brewed in a commercial facility.
Trappist - Beer from specific abbeys in which monks are directly involved.

British and American Craft
Pale Ale - Deep golden ale which is fragrant with a slightly bitter finish.
Amber Ale - Medium color with malty profile and some hops in the finish.
Red Ale - Similar to amber usually spicier and more bitter.
ESB (Extra Special Bitter) - Indicates a strong beer with extra hops.
Stout - A beer with much black malt and a toasty flavor. Black in color and has a variety of styles.
Porter - Similar to stout, but traditionally a blend of older and younger ales.
Scotch Ale - Rich and malty, fairly dark with caramel notes.
Barleywine - Rich and concentrated ale which is dense and high in alcohol. West Coast versions are highly hopped.
IPA (India Pale Ale) - Extremely full-flavored and distinctively bitter. The US version is much more dramatic and assertive.

German
Helles - Golden color.
Dunkel - Dark in color.
Marzen - Amber beer for fest time.
Schwarz - Black beer.
Weiss or Weizen - Wheat beer.
Hefe Weizen - Unfiltered wheat. Note: It’s the yeast srain that gives the beer it’s spicy flavor.
Rauchbier - Beer made with wood-smoked malt.
Bock - Extra malt for a stronger beer.
Doppelbock (doublebock) - Even more malt, usually dark.
Kolsch - Cologne style, the lightest top fermented golden ale.

Additional Terms
Imperial - A highly-extracted version of a certain type of beer
Double - Twice the malt half the water, way too much of a good thing.
Vintage - Beer produced in a certain year or for a holiday.
Bottle Conditioned - A second dose of yeast is added to insure complexity.
OG - Original Gravity. The ratio of solids to liquids in a brew.
IBU - International Bittering Unit. Amount of hops on a scale of 100
ABV - Alcohol by Volume.

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2

Handy reference. Thanks for posting it, Veronica. [thumbs-up.gif]

3

As a lager brewer this always gets me going. The difference between ales and lagers is the fermentation temperature. Ales ferment best between 60 and 75 degrees, and will fall out of solution at lower temperatures. Lagers yeasts ferment between 40 and 50 degrees and will continue to “process” beer at very low temperatures. Ales don’t really top ferment and lagers don’t really bottom ferment.

In addition, lagers don’t have to be light. Bocks, Dopplebocks, and Baltic Porters are all lagers and are high in alcohol.

One more thing, Pilsner is a place-name, like Chablis or Burgundy. It denotes beer from Pilsen, Czech Republic. While it gets used a lot as a general term, if we respect place-names, we shouldn’t use it. In Germany, they call that style “Pils”.

4

Rick, appreciate your insights.

Since hairs are already being split [whistle.gif], a question for you on the Pils/Pilsner comment: As you say, the “place” is Pilsen (Plzeň, Czech Republic). Why do you feel “Pils” is a more appropriate term for the style than is “Pilsner”, the first apparently just a Deutch variation on the same word? If the place-name is to be respected, perhaps neither should be used outside Pilsen?

5

I’ve always thought it should be called Pilsner Style, or something of that nature for the same reason we don’t call sparkling wine from Napa Champagne. I don’t think pils is any more appropriate than pilsner. Then again, an argument could be made that terroir plays a much smaller role in beer and the place of brewing doesn’t matter, could it not?

6

Actually, “Pilsner” is the German word for “from Pilsen”, just as “Budweiser” is “from Budweis” (or České Budějovice in Czech). Garrett Oliver, the Brew Master at Brooklyn Brewing says in his great book, “The Brew Master’s Table”, “Deferring to the sensitivities of the Czechs, most German breweries abbreviate Pilsner to simply Pils”. If Pils is good enough for the Germans, and doesn’t offend the Czechs, is works for me. I call my Bohemian Pilsner-style beer “Pils”.

You are right that “Pilsner” is very commonly used, and the TTB actually allows it, while it disallows usage of names such as “Vienna”, “Munich”, and “Kolsch” (from Köln). Perhaps we just don’t have the same respect for the Czechs that we do for the Germans. Just look what we did to Budweiser!

Given that a love of wine is what brought us to this web site, I would think that this group would be more sensitive to the place-name issue than others may be.

It is easier to recreate terroir in brewing than it is in wine-making only because one can import malt and hops from other locations. Quite frankly, North American malt is a very poor substitute for Bavarian/Bohemian malt - it’s a totally different animal. The Saaz hop that really defines the Pilsner style only grows in the Czech/German part of the world. Water has a huge impact on style, but can be duplicated with some effort. I happen to be blessed with water that is almost exactly the same as Pilsen, which make it easy to make this style.

7

Exactly! Hence, my question on the word “Pils”. Oliver’s explanation, if accurate, certainly gives more credence to its use, however.

8

This is a helpful guide for those new to serious beer as well:

Do you know the difference between price and value? Compare the Brewing Specs:

Coordweiser Lite Ice Draft:
Raw Materials
Rice!?!?!?!? Barley, Water (from the local municipal system), Corn Syrup, Hops (but not enough to really bother anyone), single-strain genetically engineered yeasts

Brewery
Industrial complexes that look like the love child of a dairy and an oil refinery.

Process
Quick brew for low alcohol (3.4%) and sweetness, age for 21 days then filtered with some wood chips so they can (falsely) advertise it as “Leechwood Aged”, pasteurized and shipped immediately with an expiration date to remind you it does not have enough hops to live.

Taste
Slim to none, faintly appley, sweetish finish.

Suggested foods:
Hot Dogs, microwave pizza, Doritos, pork rinds…

Advertising as a percentage of price:
40% give or take a Bikini team and a few CGI Amphibians.



Orval Trappiste:
Raw Materials
Three distinct 100% Barley malts, Water from a famous local lake that you can see fish swimming 50ft deep in, lots of Hops (German Westphalia and English Goldings), five separate yeasts cultured for centuries.

Brewery
One (1) 17th Century Monastery fitted with modern vessels in the traditional small batch style. Aging cellars dug by hand.

Process
Slow boil brewing for maximum aromatic extraction, primary fermentation for alcohol (5.7%) followed by secondary with Golding Hops (for flavor) which takes 6 weeks. The beer is primed with white candy sugar and yeasts then bottled for a third fermentation in the bottle, then aged three months at the Abbey. It is still fermenting in the bottle when you buy it. Never pasteurized.

Taste
A beer of uncompromising character with rich flavors, a sage aroma and an exquisite dryness that makes it unmatched as an aperitif.

Suggested foods:
Grilled Game Sausages marinated in Orval, wrapped en croûte with goat cheese, topped with a tomato coulis laced with Orval. But it’s also good with Doritos and Guacamole!

Advertising as a percentage of price: less than 1%

This is just one example of why cheap beer is expensive for what it is and great handmade ales are one of the last honestly crafted luxury goods most of us can still afford. And, once you factor in that your average Belgian is twice to thrice as strong as the industrial fizz that passes for beer in most places, the buzz per buck ratio rocks as well!

9

Hey! There’s nothing wrong with municipal water! Oh wait, you live in L.A. neener

10

Rick, there was a HUGE to do a while back about some Orange County municipality using retreated sewer water (perfectly safe, the astronauts do it) as there was a Miller brewery there!

11

Actually, “Pilsner” is the German word for “from Pilsen”, just as “Budweiser” is “from Budweis” (or České Budějovice in Czech). Garrett Oliver, the Brew Master at Brooklyn Brewing says in his great book, “The Brew Master’s Table”, “Deferring to the sensitivities of the Czechs, most German breweries abbreviate Pilsner to simply Pils”. If Pils is good enough for the Germans, and doesn’t offend the Czechs, is works for me. I call my Bohemian Pilsner-style beer “Pils”.

Then there is the German title Ur-Pils (ultimate pils) oftimes seen.

12

I thought that “bottle conditioned” meant a second adding of fermentable sugar, not more yeast?

13

Many breweries that bottle-condition their beers will filter out the primary fermenting (ale) yeast and inoculate the beer with a lager yeast that will ferment at a lower temperature.