the idea of using a solution to sanitize any equipment that comes in contact with a cooled wort. This solution can be a simple one like diluting some bleach in water and rinsing all your equipment really well or just using a no-rinse sanitizer like Iodophor which is commonly available from your home brewing supply store of choice
A mash tun is a vessel used to mash your milled grains before the boiling phase. A mash tun can start as simple as your big pot in which you do your boil, it can be a converted cooler box or it can be a pro-style tun with false bottom to catch the grains and sediment as it runs out the through the tap into your boiling kettle.
This is the process of letting the milled grains steep like some kind of tea in a mashing tun in hot water to rehydrate the malted barley and start extracting that most necessary of beer ingredients – the sweet sticky sugary goodness responsible for the flavor, texture, smell and fermenting properties of your beer.
It is important to keep the mash at a specific temperature usually between 60 and 69 degrees Celcius and it is also a good idea to give it a stir once or twice throughout the mash to get as much out of the grain as possible. Sparging is the process of using clean, heated water to run over the grains in the grain bag after it has mashed for an hour. The water is often referred to as “strike” water and generally has to be around 75 to 77 degrees Celcius. It is a delicate process and needs to be done slowly to allow the grains to rinse off properly and get as much of the sugary content to run through into your boiling pot as possible.
This refers to the bitterness of a beer. Bittering of a beer is done by the addition of hops and it is the alpha acids in these little flowers that work the magic. IBU is measured using specialized tools like a spectrophotometer, however a high IBU does not necessarily mean a bitter beer.
"an Imperial Stout may have an IBU of 50, but will taste less bitter than an English Bitter with an IBU of 30, because the latter beer uses much less malt than the former. The technical limit for IBU's is around 100; some have tried to surpass this number, but there is no real gauge after 100 IBUs when it comes to taste threshold." Sources: http://beer.about.com/od/glossary/g/ibudefined.htm http://beer.wikia.com/wiki/International_Bitterness_Units The water that is used for brewing is referred to as liquor by brewers. Water is such an important ingredient in beer and makes up the biggest part of the product, but more interestingly good quality water can completely enhance the taste of beer.
Source: African Brew by Lucy Corne and Ryno Reyneke |
Glossary
Trying to make sense of the nomenclature used in brewing circles... Archives
May 2014
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