Fermentation & General

Question 1

What is wort?

Answer 1

A sugar-rich liquid made from steeping malted grain in water.

Question 2

Under the Bavarian Purity Law (1516), what are the three ingredients in beer?

Answer 2

Barley, Hops, Water (yeast was not yet understood to be part of fermentation)

Question 3

What is Reinheitsgebot?

Answer 3

The Bavarian Purity Law

Question 4

What is the preferred choice of grain for brewing (barring speciality styles)?

Answer 4

Barley

Question 5

What is amylase?

Answer 5

An enzyme that converts starchy carbohydrates into the fermentable sugars maltose and dextrin.

Question 6

How does the act of drying the malted barley impact the style of beer?

Answer 6

The length and degree of roasting will affect the character of the malt - heavy roasting for porters, light toasting for pale ales, etc.

Question 7

What is green malt?

Answer 7

Germinated barley before drying

Question 8

What is grist?

Answer 8

Ground malted barley (between drying and mashing)

Question 9

What process leads to wort?

Answer 9

Mashing: the combination of grist and hot water to extract sugars

Question 10

What is sparging?

Answer 10

Rinsing the spent mash with fresh water to extract more sugar and flavor - will extract more bitterness as well.

Question 11

What is a copper?

Answer 11

A brew kettle: the vessel for boiling the wort

Question 12

How long is the wort boiled? Why?

Answer 12

At least one hour, to stabilize and sterilize, darken the color, and evaporate excess water.

Question 13

What is added to the copper before boiling?

Answer 13

Hops

Question 14

How do hops behave through the boiling process?

Answer 14

They become more bitter as they boil longer, and lose aromas.

Question 15

What is a hopback chamber?

Answer 15

A sealed chamber between the copper and the chiller - hops are added, the hot wort is run through, and then immediately chilled, preserving the volatile hop aromas.
Contains a filter at one end to strain out the hop petals.

Question 16

What is the latin for top fermenting yeast?

Answer 16

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Question 17

What is the latin for bottom fermenting yeast?

Answer 17

Saccharomyces pastorianus

Question 18

What is the former name for Saccharomyces pastorianus?

Answer 18

Saccharomyces carlsbergensis

Question 19

Is bottled beer pasteurized?

Answer 19

Yes, usually.

Question 20

Is draught beer pasturized?

Answer 20

Yes usually, with the exception of cask ales.

Question 21

What are bottle-conditioned beers?

Answer 21

Unfiltered beers that undergo partial fermentation in bottle.

Question 22

What is Alcohol by Weight?

Answer 22

Amount of alcohol in beer meansured in term of the % weight of alcohol per volume. Approximately 20% less than ABV.

Question 23

Why is a wooden bung required for “real” beer?

Answer 23

It allows the pressure of fermentation to be relieved, especially if the cask is made of metal.

Question 24

What is Chill proof?

Answer 24

Cold stabilization.

Question 25

What is Conditioning?

Answer 25

Period of maturation intended to impart “condition” (natural carbonation).
Warm conditioning develops complexity of flavors
Cold conditioning imparts a clean, round taste

Question 26

What is a Conditioning Tank?

Answer 26

A vessel in which beer is placed after primary fermentation where the beer matures, clarifies, and is naturally carbonated through secondary fermentation.
Also called Bright Beer Tank, Serving Tank, or Secondary Tank.
Beer conditioned in cask (cask-conditioning) has lighter carbonation.

Question 27

What is dextrin?

Answer 27

The unfermentable carbohydrate produced by the enzymes in barley. It gives flavor, body, and mouthfeel.
Lower temperatures produce more deztrin and less sugar; higher temperatures produce more sugars and less dextrin.

Question 28

What is Draft?

Answer 28

The process of dispensing beer from a bright tank, cask, or keg, by hand pump, pressure from an air pump, or injected carbon dioxide intserted into the beer container prior to sealing.

Question 29

What is Krausening?

Answer 29

The addition of a small proportion of partly fermented wort to a brew during lagering; stimulates secondary fermentation and imparts a crisp, spritzy character.

Question 30

What is Lagering?

Answer 30

“Storage.” Maturation for several weeks or months at cold temperatures (close to 0ºC) to settle residual yeast, impart carbonation, and make for clean, round, flavors.

Question 31

What is Lauter?

Answer 31

To run the wort from the mash tun, from the German “to clarify.” A lauter tun is a separate vessel to do this job, using a system of sharp rakes to achieve an intense extraction of malt sugars.

Question 32

What does Lightstruck indicate?

Answer 32

A skunklike smell from exposure to light (happens in bottle from improper storage).

Question 33

To what temperature is beer heated during pasteurization?

Answer 33

140-174ºF

Question 34

What is maltose?

Answer 34

A water soluble, fermentable sugar in malted barley.

Question 35

What is Decoction?

Answer 35

An exhaustive system of mashing in which portions of the wort are removed, heated, and returned to the original vessel.

Question 36

What is Attenuation?

Answer 36

The extent to which yeast consumes fermentable sugars in the beer.

Question 37

What are the four noble hops?

What characteristics do they share?

Answer 37

Hallertauer Mittelfrüh (Bavaria, SE Germany)
Tettnang (Swabia, near Bodensee)
Spalt (Bavaria, North of Hallertau)
Saaz (Czech)

All are highly aromatic but relatively low in bitterness.

Question 38

Name three malts

Answer 38

Crystal
Vienna
Munich
Black

Question 39

What is “attenuation”?

Answer 39

In brewing, attenuation refers to the conversion of sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide by the fermentation process; the greater the attenuation, the more sugar has been converted into alcohol. A more attenuated beer is drier and more alcoholic than a less attenuated beer made from the same wort.

How much sugar the yeast eats