a short glossary of brewing and beer terms

do you know your top fermented beer from your bottom?

take a look through these pages to find out more about some of the phrases used on our site.

Abbey Beers

Abbey beers are brewed by commercial companies, many to original recipes and under the supervision of monasteries (although some have no links to actual abbeys). Although positioned alongside Trappist beers, the two should not be confused as they are separate products.

Maredsous

   

ABV (Alcohol By Volume)

ABV is the standard international measure of how much alcohol is in a beer, wine or spirit. Beer normally falls within the 2% – 12% range, with most found somewhere between 4% – 6%.

   

Adjuncts

Adjuncts are unmalted grains (such as rye, oats, barley, and wheat) used in brewing beer which supplement the main mash ingredients, a technique used by specialist craft brewers to achieve different flavours.

Producers of mass-market beers sometimes dilute their mash with adjuncts such as corn or rice – more a cost cutting procedure than for taste or quality reasons.

   

Aroma

Just as wine or whisky connoisseurs will talk about the 'nose' of a drink being as important as the taste, then so it follows that the aroma of the beer will give an idication of the flavours to follow in the mouth: hoppy, malty or fruity.

   

Attenuation

If a beer is said to be fully 'attenuated' then this refers to most or all of the sugars will have turned to alcohol. In some beers this is not always desirable and some malt sugars are left in the beer for sweetness and a 'fullness on the palate' - these may be referred to as 'not brewed out' beers.

   

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Glossary of Terms