Fermentation

The process in brewing whereby the action of the yeast turns the malt sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide - once this is done, the ingredients are officially beer!

Finish (or Aftertaste)

Sometimes called the 'aftertaste', the finish is the impression left by the beer in the mouth. Each style of beer has distinct aftertaste components, from pilsners which should be clean and have almost no aftertaste whereas stout which is malty with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Some characteristics of aftertaste in beer include bitter, malty, earthy, sweet, fruity, cloying, clean or sour.

Fruit Beer

Fruit flavourings have been added to beer for centuries, with the art being perfected in Belgium with fruit either added whole or as a syrup to Lambic, Oud Bruin or, occasionally, white beer, resulting in the delicious kriek (cherry), framboise (raspberry), pêche (peach) and cassis (blackcurrant) beers, to mention just a few of the flavours available.

Brewing of fruit beer is also popular in the United States, along with seasonal variations such as pumpkin ale produced during Autumn.

Liefmans | Timmermans | Bacchus

Gueuze (or Geuze)

Geuze is a type of lambic, a Belgian beer, made by blending young (1 year old) and old (2–3 year old) lambics into a new beer which is then bottled for a second fermentation. Because the young beer is not fully fermented, it contains fermentable sugars, which allow the second fermentation to occur.

Since gueuze is made by blending lambics, it tastes different from traditional ale and pilsner style beers, and because aged hops are used to produce these lambics, the beer has little to none of the traditional hop bitterness that can be found in most other styles of beer.

Many describe the taste as sour however some brewers add sugar to make the beer more appealing to a wider audience.

Due to it's carbonation, gueuze is sometimes called 'Brussels Champagne'.

Hops

In brewing, hops are the female flower 'cones' from the hop plant (Humulus lupulus) and is used for flavour and a stabilising agent in beer. Hops are dried in an 'oast house' before being used in the brewing process, where they impart their resins and alpha acids to give the beer aroma and bitterness.