Here are some of the more common words and abbreviations you will come across when reading about how to make your own beer. Some of the words may be fairly obvious but I still wanted to list them for you so you have a full index to refer to if you get stuck.
AAU – Alpha Acid Units. A home brewing measurement of hops. Equal to the weight in ounces multiplied by the percent of alpha acids
ABV – Alcohol by volume
ABW – Alcohol by weight
Airlock – A plastic top that releases carbon dioxide during fermentation without contaminating your brew.
Ale – Type of top fermented beer
Attenuation – The degree of conversion of sugar to alcohol and CO2
Beer – Any beverage made by fermenting a wort made from malted barley and seasoned with hops
Carboy – Glass fermenter
Cold Break – Proteins that coagulate and fall out of solution when the wort is rapidly cooled prior to pitching the yeast
Conditioning – Adding sugar to your beer before bottling. This makes the left over yeast react with the sugar to create carbonation.
DME – Dry malt extract
Dry hopping – Adding hops during the fermentation stage
Fermentation – The time in the brewing process where your beer is sitting in a container and reacting with the yeast. This usually takes a couple weeks and is done before bottling your beer.
FG – Final gravity, the gravity of the beer taken at the end of fermentation
Gravity – Denseness of a liquid used to determine the amount of alcohol
Hot Break – Proteins that coagulate and fall out of solution during the wort boil
Hydrometer – A tool used to determine gravity
IBU – International Bittering Units. A more precise unit for measuring hops. Equal to the AAU multiplied by factors for percent utilization, wort volume and wort gravity
IPA – India Pale Ale
Krausen (kroy-zen) – Used to refer to the foamy head that builds on top of the beer during fermentation. Also an advanced method of priming
Lager – Type of bottom fermented beer
Lautering – Mash separated into the wort and leftover grain
Malt – Grain (either barley or wheat) sometimes in a malt extract form which is a syrup
Mead – Fermented honey
OG – Original gravity (the gravity of the beer taken at the beginning of fermentation)
P H – A measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution
Pitching – Pouring yeast into your beer
Primary Fermentation – The initial fermentation activity marked by the evolution of carbon dioxide and Krausen. Most of the total attenuation occurs during this phase
Racking – The careful siphoning of the beer away from the trub
Sanitize – To reduce microbial contaminants to insignificant levels (cleaning your kit)
Secondary Fermentation – A period of settling and conditioning of the beer after primary fermentation and before bottling
Sparging – Filtering water through the grain to remove the sugar
T rub or troob – The sediment at the bottom of the fermenter consisting of hot and cold break material, hop bits, and dead yeast
Wort – The name for your brew when its finished boiling, before its added to the fermenter
Zymurgy – The science of brewing and fermentation
