Beer, a complete course

The big families

ale: Beer made with a yeast that works warm, around 60F to 72F, and works fast. Ale yeast adds flavours of its own, usually fruit or spice. IPA, stout, wheat beer and most Belgian beer are ales.Taught in Ale and lager, Module F1, What beer is
lager: Beer made with a yeast that works cold, around 45F to 55F, and slowly. Lager yeast stays out of the way, so the beer tastes clean and the malt and hops do the talking. Pilsner, Helles and most mass market beer are lagers.Taught in Ale and lager, Module F1, What beer is

Ingredients

malt: Barley that has been sprouted and then dried in a kiln. It supplies all the sugar, and therefore all the alcohol, plus the colour and the bready or caramel flavours.Taught in The four ingredients, Module F1, What beer is
hops: Green cones from a climbing vine, a relative of cannabis. They do two separate jobs: bitterness, and smell. Which one you get depends entirely on when they go into the beer.Taught in The four ingredients, Module F1, What beer is
yeast: A single celled fungus that eats sugar and produces alcohol and bubbles. It also makes flavours of its own, such as banana, pear, clove or pepper.Taught in The four ingredients, Module F1, What beer is
adjunct: Any source of sugar other than malted barley. Rice, corn, oats, wheat and plain sugar are all adjuncts. The word is often used as an insult and does not deserve to be.Taught in Adjuncts, Module F2, How beer is made
crystal malt: Malt that was heated while still damp, so the sugars inside caramelised. It adds colour, a toffee flavour, and body. IPAs use very little of it on purpose.Taught in Malting, Module F2, How beer is made

Numbers and measures

ABV: Alcohol by volume, written as a percentage. The one number on a menu always worth reading, because it tells you how the evening goes.Taught in The three numbers, Module F1, What beer is
IBU: A laboratory measure of bitter compounds, from 0 to about 100. It is a poor guide to how bitter a beer actually tastes, because sweetness hides bitterness.Taught in The three numbers, Module F1, What beer is
SRM: A colour number. Low is pale, high is dark. It tells you nothing about strength, bitterness or weight.Taught in The three numbers, Module F1, What beer is
standard drink: In the United States, 14 grams of alcohol, which is a 12 ounce beer at 5%. Work it out with ounces times strength divided by 0.6.Taught in The three numbers, Module F1, What beer is
mouthfeel: How a beer feels rather than how it tastes. Thin, creamy, sharp, sticky, drying. Often more useful for describing a beer than flavour words are.Taught in Building a vocabulary, Module F3, How to taste

How beer is made

lagering: Storing a finished lager cold for several weeks before selling it. It lets rough flavours settle out. The German word lagern just means to store.Taught in Conditioning, Module F2, How beer is made
mash: Soaking crushed malt in hot water so its starch turns into sugar. The temperature chosen here decides how full bodied or how dry the finished beer will be.Taught in Mashing, Module F2, How beer is made
wort said WERT: The sweet liquid you get after mashing, before the yeast turns it into beer. Think of it as unfermented beer.Taught in Mashing, Module F2, How beer is made
the boil: An hour or so of hard boiling after mashing. It sterilises the liquid and, if hops are added, creates bitterness.Taught in The boil, Module F2, How beer is made
dry hopping: Adding hops after the boil, into cold or fermenting beer. It adds smell and almost no bitterness. DDH on a menu means the brewer did it twice.Taught in When the hops go in, Module 3, Hop forward ales
fermentation: The stage where yeast eats the sugar and turns it into alcohol and bubbles. It takes days for an ale and weeks for a lager.Taught in Fermentation, Module F2, How beer is made
flocculation: How well yeast clumps together and drops to the bottom when it has finished working. Yeast that does it badly leaves the beer cloudy.Taught in Where the fruit flavour comes from, Module 3, Hop forward ales
attenuation: How much of the sugar the yeast managed to eat. High attenuation means a dry beer. Low attenuation means a sweeter, fuller one.Taught in Fermentation, Module F2, How beer is made
conditioning: The resting period after fermentation, where the beer settles, clears and takes on its bubbles.Taught in Conditioning, Module F2, How beer is made
biotransformation: Yeast chemically changing compounds that came in with the hops, usually turning them into stronger smelling versions. It is a large part of why hazy IPAs smell of tropical fruit.Taught in Where the fruit flavour comes from, Module 3, Hop forward ales
thiol: A family of aroma compounds that arrive in hops chemically locked up and odourless. Yeast can free them. Your nose detects some of them at a few parts per trillion.Taught in Where the fruit flavour comes from, Module 3, Hop forward ales
isomerization: The reaction where boiling rearranges hop compounds into a form that dissolves in beer and tastes bitter. No heat means no bitterness.Taught in When the hops go in, Module 3, Hop forward ales
humulinone: Hop compounds that have oxidised. They dissolve in cold beer, so dry hopping adds them. They are only about two thirds as bitter as the ones made by boiling, but they still raise the measured IBU.Taught in The bitterness number, Module 3, Hop forward ales
polyphenol: Compounds from grain and hops that bind to the proteins in your saliva. Too many and the beer feels rough and drying rather than bitter.Taught in The bitterness number, Module 3, Hop forward ales
ester: A fruity flavour made by the yeast during fermentation. Banana, pear, apple, peach and pineapple all come from esters, not from fruit.Taught in Ale and lager, Module F1, What beer is
phenol: A spicy or medicinal flavour, also made by yeast. Clove and pepper are wanted in German wheat beer and Belgian beer. Anywhere else it usually reads as plastic and counts as a fault.Taught in Ale and lager, Module F1, What beer is

Styles

Pilsner: A pale, crisp, dry lager, first brewed in Pilsen in 1842. It tastes of bread and a clean herbal or spicy hop. It is the beer nearly every mass market lager is imitating.Taught in Czech Premium Pale Lager, Module 1, Pale lagers
Pale Ale: An ale with a moderate hop character. Think of it as an IPA turned down: same citrus and pine, less of it, and usually around 5%.Taught in American Pale Ale, Module 3, Hop forward ales
IPA: A pale beer with far more hops in it than the beer needs. Smells of grapefruit, pine or mango. Bitter at the end rather than the start. About half of American craft beer.Taught in India Pale Ale, Module 3, Hop forward ales
stout: A dark ale made with roasted grain, so it tastes of coffee and cocoa. Being dark says nothing about strength. Guinness Draught is 4.2%.Taught in Irish Stout, Module 6, Porter and stout
porter: A dark ale, older than stout and usually a little softer and more chocolatey. The line between porter and stout has never been firm.Taught in English Porter, Module 6, Porter and stout
Helles said HELL-us: A pale German lager from Munich, soft and gently bready, with just enough hop to balance. Brewed as Bavaria's answer to Pilsner.Taught in Munich Helles, Module 1, Pale lagers
Hefeweizen said HAY-fuh-vy-tsen: A German wheat beer that tastes of banana and clove, both of which come from the yeast rather than from anything added. Cloudy by design.Taught in German Hefeweizen, Module 4, Wheat beers
Saison said say-ZONN: A dry, peppery, fruity Belgian farmhouse ale. Usually pale, usually fizzy, often stronger than it tastes.Taught in Saison, Module 7, Belgian and French ales
Gose said GOH-zeh: A tart German wheat beer with a little salt and coriander in it. Light, sharp and refreshing rather than sour in a challenging way.Taught in Gose, Module 8, Sour and wild beers
Kolsch said KULSH: A pale beer from Cologne, fermented warm like an ale then stored cold like a lager. Clean, soft, faintly fruity. The name is legally protected to the city.Taught in Kolsch, Module 5, Amber, brown and mild ales
Tripel said TRIP-el: A strong pale Belgian ale, usually 8% to 10%, that tastes deceptively light. Peppery, fruity and dry.Taught in Tripel, Module 7, Belgian and French ales
Gueuze said GUH-zuh: A blend of young and old Belgian lambic beers, refermented in the bottle. Dry, sour, funky and sparkling. Closer to cider or champagne than to normal beer.Taught in Gueuze, Module 8, Sour and wild beers
session: A word placed in front of a style meaning deliberately lower in alcohol than usual, so you can have several. Its opposite is imperial or double.Taught in The strong end and the light end, Module 3, Hop forward ales
imperial: A word placed in front of a style meaning deliberately stronger than usual. An imperial stout or a double IPA is the same idea as the original, turned up.Taught in The strong end and the light end, Module 3, Hop forward ales

At the bar

nitro: Beer pushed with nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide. It gives smaller bubbles, a thick creamy head and a softer feel. Guinness Draught is the famous one.Taught in Packaging, Module F2, How beer is made
cask ale: Beer that finishes fermenting in the container it is served from, poured without added gas, at around 52F to 55F. It is a serving method, not a style.Taught in Packaging, Module F2, How beer is made
flight: Four to six small pours served together on a board, usually about 4 ounces each. Good for a first visit somewhere. You can normally choose your own.Taught in Flights, samples and tasters, Module F4, At the bar
half pour: An 8 ounce serving at roughly half the price. Most bars offer it and almost none advertise it. Worth asking for.Taught in Pour sizes and how to ask, Module F4, At the bar
crowler: A large container filled to order for taking home. A crowler is a 32 ounce can sealed on the spot. A growler is a refillable jug. Both are for drinking elsewhere, not in the bar.Taught in Pour sizes and how to ask, Module F4, At the bar
beer clean: A glass with no residue on it. If bubbles cling to the inside of your glass, it is not beer clean, and the film is destroying the head. Worth asking for another.Taught in Glassware, Module P3, Buying, keeping and serving
Cicerone said SIS-uh-rohn: A four level beer certification, roughly the beer version of a wine sommelier. If you see Certified Cicerone on a wall, somebody there has passed a real exam.Taught in How professionals learn faults, Module P2, Faults

Things that go wrong

diacetyl said die-ASS-uh-teel: A butter or butterscotch flavour, with a slick feel in the mouth. Wanted at low levels in a few British styles, a fault in nearly everything else.Taught in The ten faults, Module P2, Faults
DMS: A cooked sweetcorn smell, from a boil that was too short or too gentle. It shows up most in pale lagers, because there is nothing to hide it.Taught in The ten faults, Module P2, Faults
oxidation: Air getting into the beer, or simple age. It smells of wet cardboard, paper or sherry. A legitimate reason to send a beer back.Taught in The ten faults, Module P2, Faults
lightstruck: Light damage. Blue light breaks down a hop compound and the result smells of skunk. You can detect it at four parts per trillion. Cans prevent it entirely.Taught in The four killers, Module 3, Hop forward ales
astringency: A rough, drying feeling, like sucking on a dry teabag. It is a texture rather than a taste, and it is different from bitterness.Taught in The bitterness number, Module 3, Hop forward ales