The Brewhoppin Beer Glossary

For those moments when you just aren't sure what we mean by that.

 

 

 

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abbey beers -  Abbey beers are a type of beer usually associated with Trappist monks. In many cases these aren't really trappist beers but are brewed similarly. Much like champagne is sparkling wine if made outside of Champagne, abbey beer is beer brewed outside of a monastery.
- Synonyms: abbey beer
ABV -  Alcohol by volume.  It is the measure of the amount of alcohol in a given liquid.  It is calculated by measuring the liquids specific gravities at different times of the brewing process.
agoraphobe -  Ahh, you must be reading a Billy Watson story... Agoraphobia is the fear of crowded or enclosed spaces.
alewifes -  A woman who keeps an alehouse.  A woman brewer.  
Strangely enough, also a foodfish of the herring family.  
- Synonyms: alewife
Brewster -  The name for a female brewer.  A woman brewer.  A lady who makes beer.
bung -  A bung, or stopper, is a rubber plug that fits into the tapered closure of a carboy. Bungs come in various sizes and shapes, and are either solid or drilled, meaning they have a hole drilled through the middle of them for use with an airlock or blow off tube.
carboy -  A carboy or demijohn is a glass or plastic vessel used in fermenting beverages such as wine, mead, cider, perry, and beer. Usually it is fitted with a rubber stopper and a fermentation lock to prevent bacteria and oxygen from entering during the fermentation process.
Cistercian -  Monks that follow a strict mantra of self-sufficiency. Cistercians branched off from original Benedictine monks in the 1600s.
- Synonyms: cistercians, Cistercians
Hymn of Ninkasi -  Borne of the flowing water,
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Borne of the flowing water,
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,


  Read the full hymn here.
IBUs -  International Bittering Units.  A fancy term developed as a way to demonstrate the bitterness of a beer.  Chemically speaking it is a measurement of bitterming compounds like alpha acids.  Most beers fall between 5 and 120 IBUs.
- Synonyms: IBU, I.B.U.s
priming sugar -  Sugar that is added to the fermented wort at the time of bottling. The still active yeast will continue to feed on this sugar and cause bubbles to form in the bottled beer. This results in carbonation.
Reinheitsgebot -  German Purity Laws of 1516. It defines the four ingredients of beer to be water, barley, yeast and hops. And nothing more.
- Synonyms: German Purity Laws, German Purity Law, purity law
three-tier system -  Simply put, the three-tier system was put into place after prohibition by the government.  It consists of producers, distributors, and retailers.   The producers make the beer, distributors buy it from the producers and sell it wholesale, and the retailers sell it for a profit.  
Trappist -  Trappist is the general term for beer brewed by monks in Trappist breweries.
- Synonyms: trappist, trappist monks
wort -  /?w?rt/ is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Production[edit] The first step in wort production is to make malt from dried, sprouted barley.