a short glossary of brewing and beer terms

do you know your top fermented beer from your bottom?

take a look through these pages to find out more about some of the phrases used on our site.

Mashing

The first stage of brewing beer, where the grain (usually malted barley, perhaps with the addition of rye, wheat or maize) is mixed with pure hot water and keeping it at a maintained temperature to allow the enzymes to break down the starch in the grain into sugars.