The first in a series of resources exploring the words, acronyms and references used to talk about our favourite drinks.
Mark Dredge has created a beer dictionary to help you better navigate the dizzying array of terms to describe the production, serving and enjoyment of beer. It’s not meant to be exhaustive or definitive. This dictionary is here to help you to make more informed decisions and to enhance your enjoyment of beer.
Beers without alcohol, or below 0.5% ABV which is considered non-intoxicating. Most Alcohol-Free Beer is made by either producing a low-strength beer then de-alcoholysing it (taking the alcohol out, often by reverse osmosis), or it could be brewed to only 0.5% ABV by having fewer fermentable sugars or a special yeast strain.
Ale yeast is known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. There are countless strains of ale yeast (like there are hundreds of types of apples, for example) and each gives its own unique characteristics. It’s the yeast which creates alcohol and some flavours and aroma in beer. Certain styles, like Wheat beers, will have a more prominent yeast aroma, whereas most pale ales, bitters and stouts have a neutral yeast character. Lager yeast is a different species of yeast known as Saccharomyces pastorianus (like how a pear is a different fruit species to an apple, despite being similar).
The primary bittering constituent of the hop. A hop variety with high alpha acids is like a chilli pepper with a high Scoville rating, and it’s a way for brewers to be able to measure the potential bitterness in their beer and calculate how many hops to add. The alpha acid content of a hop ranges from under 3% to over 20%. Hops also contain natural oils and it’s these which produce much of the flavour and aroma in a beer.
Known for being impactful in flavour and aroma, American hops typically give a range of citrus, tropical and resinous (think pine or rosemary) qualities to a beer. Common varieties include: Citra, Cascade, Centennial, Mosaic and Simcoe. America is the largest hop-producing nation, amounting to around 40% of the world’s hops, and most of them grow in the Pacific Northwest.
A popular beer style, with 5-7% ABV, that characteristically has a strong aroma, flavour and bitterness from American hops. It was a style first brewed in the 1980s in North America with inspiration from old English India Pale Ales and updated with those American hops. Today there is no link to old English India Pale Ales, and IPA is a modern beer style.
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