Lost in Translation?

Ale: Beer brewed with top–fermenting yeast. Warm and short fermentation period.

Balance: The relationship between malts (sweet) and hops (bitter).

Carboy: Large, rigid container in which beer is left to ferment.

Fermentation: The process by which delicious malt sugars fully transform into even more delicious beer.

Hops: Dried cones picked from the vine of the hop plant. These little boogers are responsible for the bitterness in beer.

Lager: Beer brewed with bottom–fermenting yeast. Require a longer, colder fermentation period than ales.

Malt: Barely steeped in water, usually distilled down to a syrup for home brewing. The kind of grain and its level of germination affect the taste of the malt, and the beer.

Wort: Malt–sugar solution that is boiled down before fermentation. Provides the perfect environment for yeast to thrive.

Yeast: Creepy single–celled organisms that are responsible for turning the malt sugars into the alcohol you know and love.