| Acetification |
Spoilage process caused by a small bug called acetobacter which turns the alcohol in the beer, first into acetaldehyde, and then further breaks this down into acetic acid - vinegar to you. There is a potty argument that 'cos vinegar makes your chips taste nicer, then a bit of vinegar in yer beer must be a good thing. We think that's totally daft.......(see also 'beer care') |
| Aspirator |
A device, considered by some to be the work of the Devil, to keep a blanket of carbon-dioxide above the beer in a cask. The idea is that as the level of beer falls in a cask whilst on dispense, instead of drawing in air (and bugs), CO2 is added via an aspirator. This staves off oxidation and acetification of the beer. Some may call it the work of the Devil, but we thoroughly approve. |
|
Barrel |
A 'barrel' (or 'brewer's barrel') is really a unit of
measure, being 36 gallons. Whilst you could get your beer in
a barrel, we now don't know of anyone who sells beer in
'barrels', anymore - not least because a barrel would be
extremely heavy at about 200kg. |
|
Bittering |
The component of the hops added to a brew that contributes
bitterness to the beer |
|
Brewer |
Chap (and sometimes a chapess) that wanders around in a
white coat issuing orders |
|
Brewlength |
The size of the batch (usually expressed in "brewer's
barrels" - a brewer's barrel being 36 gallons, or about 160
litres). Usually the grist case, mash tun, underback (if
any), copper, hop-back (if any) and fermenters are a matched
set. In our case our plant is 15 brewer's barrels 'long'.
That's about 4,500 pints per brew |
|
Burtonise |
Before a brew the water we use is tested for calcium content
and adjusted by the addition of dilute acid
and gypsum based dry treatment. The idea is to emulate the
well water used in Burton-on-Trent - arguably
Britain's brewing Mecca |
|
Cask |
Container - once wood but now almost always stainless steel
- in which traditional 'real' ales are shipped to licensed
premises. Comes in various sizes - pin, firkin, kilderkin
and barrel |
|
Chimb or Chine |
Top and bottom part of a cask when 'stood up'. Now often has
name of brewery embossed round it |
|
Cold sterile filtration |
Process used almost universally when bottling wine. In our
case we pass the beer through a coarse sheet filter, which
adsorbs the worst of the suspended matter in the beer (e.g.:
crocodiles &c.) before passing it through a membrane filter
with a pore size of .45 micron (in other words, bleeding
fine!). This effectively 'sterilises' the beer prior to
bottling or kegging |
|
Condition |
The slight fizziness in the beer derived from naturally
absorbed carbon dioxide produced during fermentation.
Properly conditioned beer has also had time to 'age' for a
while to allow flavours to meld and mellow. Without
'condition', beer tastes flat and dull |
|
Conditioning tank |
Not surprisingly, this is a tank in which beer is allowed to
'condition', and we use one for kegged and bottled beers |
|
Copper |
Vessel in which the wort is boiled and where hops are added.
Used to be made of copper - hence the name |
|
Copper hops |
These are the hops added to the wort in the copper at the
beginning of the boil. Their job is mainly to add bitterness
to the beer |
|
Drop bright |
What happens when finings have worked and the beer becomes
clear. The suspended matter and finings settle on the bottom
of the vessel - hence 'drop bright' |
|
False bottom |
A perforated plate fixed just above the actual bottom of the
vessel. Used in the mash tun to drain wort off the malt
(which is left behind sitting on the false bottom) and used
in the copper to drain wort off the hops and trub |
|
Finings |
Finings are added to the beer to get suspended matter to
drop to the bottom of the vessel. Their particles have a
small electrical charge that attracts the suspended matter
with an opposite electrical charge. This causes the
particles to flocculate and fall to the bottom. The
flocculated particles may also have a sieving effect as they
drop, taking other suspended matter down with them. Finings
come in all shapes and sizes, and include egg whites
(albumen), special clays (diatomaceous earth) and fish swim
bladders (isinglass) |
|
Firkin |
A 9 gallon cask |
|
Fluffy bottoms |
Sounds like a dodgy medical (or mental) condition, but it's
what the brewer doesn't want when fining beer. If the
finings don't work properly they can cause a fluffy haze at
the bottom of the cask |
|
Grist |
According to the recipe being used for any particular beer,
it is the assembly of crushed malts, and any additional
adjuncts like roast barley or liquor treatments prior to
being mixed with liquor to form the mash |
|
Grist case |
The hopper above the mashing head in which the grist sits,
and where, if you like, the grist is assembled |
|
Heat exchanger |
Clever bit of kit through which (say) wort at 100°C is
passed in one direction and cold water at 12°C passes in the
opposite direction. Separated by a thin stainless membrane,
the wort is cooled down to 22°C and the cold water heats up
to about 75°C. In our case we collect the warm water ready
to turn it into hot liquor for the next brew |
|
Hop-back |
Our copper has a false bottom to act as a hop-back, but
traditionally a hop-back was a separate vessel into which
the contents of the copper was drained at the end of the
boil in order to filter off the spent hops |
|
Hops |
Humulus
lupulus,
to you. Depending on whom you want to believe, the first
written account of the use of hops in beer was by the Jews
during their captivity in Babylon. The Romans brought hops
to Britain, but only for culinary use. It took a long time
for them to be accepted in brewing. Eventually hops gained
popularity not only for their bittering ability but also for
their role as an antiseptic and preservative. They helped to
clarify the wort, provided a good head and improved a beer's
keeping power |
|
Keg |
Pressure vessel for the distribution of kegged beer and
lager |
|
Keystone |
The smaller of the two bungs used to stop up a cask. The
center of the keystone has a thin membrane which is ruptured
by bashing in a tap in order to get at the beer inside |
|
Kilderkin |
An 18 gallon cask |
|
Late hops |
The charge of hops added to the copper at or near the end of
the boil. Their principle job is to add aroma to the beer |
|
Liquor |
"Water" everywhere other than in a brewery |
|
Malt |
Derived from barley, the malting process is the first step
in turning the starch in the barley grains into fermentable
sugars. Ours arrives ready crushed. Smells deliciously like
Ovaltine (which is also made from malt) |
|
Manway |
Not a woman's term for the way blokes do things, but a
watertight access hatch into a vessel through which a man
(or woman) can crawl |
|
Mash |
The porridge-like mix of grist and liquor |
|
Mash tun |
Vessel in which the mash is kept for an hour or so to allow
enzymes in the malt to work on the starch and turn it into
fermentable sugars |
|
Mashing head |
Device through which the grist falls, and where it is mixed
with liquor to form the mash. Important factor in its design
is to ensure the best possible homogenous mash with no lumpy
bits! |
|
Mouthfeel |
Nothing to do with taste, really, but a description of the
sensation the beer creates in one's mouth whilst guzzling it
down. Made up of a mixture of the 'prickle' from dissolved
carbon dioxide, the alcohol content (alcohol is a useful
solvent), the amount of unfermentable sugars (how 'sweet' or
'thick' the beer is) and, no doubt, many other factors |
|
Pasteurize |
Thoroughly idle - and horrible - method of sterilizing beer
to make it 'keep' in bottle (or keg). Effectively the beer
is heated for a short time - cooked, if you like - to kill
off the pathogens. You can imagine what cooking beer does
for its flavour |
|
Pin |
A 4.5 gallon cask or half a firkin. No, it's not a small
prick |
|
Racking cock |
Not some variety of hen, but the heavy long nosed tap used
to fill casks in the brewery |
|
Racking tank |
Tall narrow vessel in which the beer is allowed an overnight
rest to help drop excess suspended matter prior to racking
the beer off into casks (via the racking cock) |
|
Real ale |
Since ale was un-hopped, maybe we should be talking about
"Real Beer" technically. However, real ale has come to mean
fined beer dispensed from unpressurised casks where the beer
remains on a bed of yeast |
|
Rolling boil |
What the brewer aims for in the copper during the boil. In
other words, a boil so vigorous that any solid matter is
kept in suspension, and a useful way of mechanically
removing bitterness from the hops, for example |
|
Secondary fermentation |
A secondary fermentation is what puts the bubbles in
champagne. We aim to bet a bit of secondary fermentation in
cask to help add 'condition' to the beer. Our beers are
normally aged at least a week to allow this to happen |
|
Shive |
The larger of the two bungs used to stop up a cask, and
situated in the belly of the cask. Either wood or plastic |
|
Sparge |
We use a rotating sparge arm (like an oversized garden
sprinkler) effectively to "rinse out" the remaining sugar
from the mash after it has finished draining out under
gravity |
|
Spent grains |
The contents of the mash tun after sparging has finished.
Often collected by local farmers |
|
Spile peg |
Peg used to stop up the hole in the shive left after the tut
has been driven in. Hard spiles are solid, and keep pressure
in the cask. Soft spiles are used to vent excess gas when
necessary |
|
Star bright |
Description of really clear, well fined, beer that will
stand being held up to a bright light source without trace
of a haze |
|
Trub |
Gunge, mostly proteins, formed during the boil. Gets
everywhere and blocks up everything, given half a chance |
|
Tut |
Small plastic center of a shive. Knocked in to the cask to
allow it to vent, and replaced with a spile peg (if you're
lucky) |
|
Underback |
Giant colander used to drain off mash or wort. We use an
underback for the mash-tun, but our copper has a false
bottom (vain creatures that it is) |
|
Unfermentable sugars (dextrins) |
Not all the sugars in the malt are fermentable - some are
indigestible by yeasts. The amount of unfermentable sugar is
influenced by the temperature at which the mash is allowed
to rest in the mash tun, so the brewer can alter the
sweetness and mouthfeel of the finished beer by adjusting
the temparature at which the malt is 'struck' |
Whisky
(or whiskey in Ireland) |
Distilled beer (think about it!) |
|
Wort |
The usually hot, always sweet, liquid formed in the mash tun
is 'wort' right through being boiled in the copper until it
has reached the fermenter. Once fermentation starts it
qualifies as 'beer' |
