I try to avoid using jargon and lingo when writing these talks, but that’s not very fun so now I’ve decided to let you in on the super secret and very cool and not dorky vocabulary brewers use to talk about beer and brewing. They might even help on your next crossword!
Brite - A term used to describe finished beer and a term for the last tank beer touches before being drinkable (Brite Tank). This is where beer carbonates and becomes crystal clear, thus making it shine brighter too!
Ester - a type of molecule produced by yeast that is responsible for some of the fruity flavors in beer. They’ll typically be described as apple or pear, but can also be strawberry and even fruit punch-like.
Hop-cano - When hops are added to a partially carbonated beer (like during dry hopping) it can cause extreme foaming (called breakout) which then launches a sticky mess of hops and beer out of the top of the tank. You’ll go home looking terrible and smelling great! If you look closely at Mountain Toad’s ceiling above the fermenters you might see some staining!
Hop Creep - Not just a fun nickname for the IPA lovers in your life, but the phenomenon of a dry hop restarting fermentation after it had already stopped. Hop creep can lead to a slightly higher ABV in dry hopped beers.
Krausen - A foamy, sticky mess made up of protein and yeast that adheres to the walls of the fermenters during fermentation. It’s a pain to wash off!
Liquor - literally just water but used for brewing. Can be treated with minerals and ions to adjust the beer’s flavor profile.
Mash - The oatmeal-like mixture of malt and water that starts the brewing process. This is where the sugar gets extracted from the malt to create a liquid called wort.
Pitching - not just for baseball players and salespeople! Pitching is the act of adding yeast to the unfermented wort to begin fermentation. I do not recommend actually throwing the yeast unless you like cleaning up yeast.
Trub - pronounced TROOB, is the coagulated mass of protein, hops, and yeast that falls to the bottom of the fermenter during fermentation and should always be removed from the beer. Removing it is called ‘Dumping Trub’.
Wet Hop vs. Dry Hop - Dry hopping is the addition of hop pellets to a beer after fermentation has finished. Wet hopping is simply the use of fresh, unprocessed hops in brewing. Fresh hops should be used within 24hr of harvesting for best results.
Wort - The sweet, unfermented liquid that is produced from mashing. This is the liquid that will eventually become beer after it has fermented.