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.
