Once upon a time, we asked the question “Are You a Beer Geek?“. If you realized you haven’t reached the apex of beer geekdom yet – we are always here to help. Today we want to equip you by going over some beer terminology. Sometimes it seems as though the world of beer has its very own language. And if you weren’t raised in a brewery, it can all get pretty confusing. See if these definitions help you during your next beer oriented conversation.

Boost Your Beer Knowledge:

ABV: Short for Alcohol by Volume, this indicates the amount of alcohol in a beer.

Adjunct: Any unmalted grain or other fermentable ingredient used in the brewing process. Adjuncts used are typically either rice or corn. They can also include honey, syrups, and numerous other sources of fermentable carbohydrates.

Collab: A beer brewed as a collaboration between two or more breweries. Collabs are often limited time releases.

Dry Hopping: Adding hops after the boil or even in the cask to increase hop aroma and flavor.

Growler: Glass jug often used to carryout beer from breweries. Often a customer will pay a deposit on the growler but can bring it back again and again for a re-fill. Growlers to-go are not legal in all U.S. states.

Gruit: An old-fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer, popular before the extensive use of hops.

Hop: A climbing plant much like a grape vine. Hops contain oils and resins that provide beer with a bittering balance in taste and aroma to the sweetness of the malt.

IBU: Short for International Bitterness Units which is the standardized measurement of the intensity of bitterness in a beer.

Lace: The lacelike pattern of foam sticking to the sides of a glass of beer once it has been partly or totally emptied.

Malt: The grain used in your beer, most use barley, that is the source of sugar which is fermented into the beer. The process of malting involves soaking your grain and allowing it to germinate, and then stopping germination with heat.

Mash: A mixture of ground malt (and possibly other grains or adjuncts) and hot water that forms the sweet wort after straining.

Mouthfeel: How a beer feels in the mouth. Usually described as thin or full.

Nitro: Addition of nitrogen into the beer that takes away some of the carbonation leaving you with a smoother and creamier taste

Wet Hopping: The addition of freshly harvested hops that have not yet been dried to different stages of the brewing process. Wet hopping adds unique flavors and aromas to beer that are not normally found when using hops that have been dried and processed.

Wort: Wort is beer before it becomes beer. After you boil the ingredients together that mixture is called wort.

If you drink and speak beer, you are a friend of ours! Here are some Beer Quotes to Live By that will continue to quench your thirst for beer knowledge.