August 17, 2010

Towards a new homebrewing lexicon

In just the span of time that I've been brewing (a drop in the bucket of humanity's fermented history), homebrewing as a leisure pursuit has advanced by leaps and bounds, the scope of which are astonishing: from canned, hopped malt extract and about six Wyeast strains (1028, 1056, 1084, 1728, 2124, 2206), to today's abundant selections of ingredients and specialized gear.

It's time our vocabulary was brought up to speed. Some of my suggested additions are below; please chime in with your own.


Beer hound (n) - a dog in your brew area "Say, fellows, there seems to be fur in this glass." "Yup, that's from the beer hound. Now shut up and drink it." 
(v - colloq.) - furiously sniffing a pint for sensory-evaluatory purposes "Jermaine beer hounded the stout until he found the diacetyl."
Cold break (v) -  to damage another's hydrometer or beer glassware without their knowledge, then leave without telling them. "I cold broke the Hacker-Pschorr boot in the rumpus room - the base cracked but no one was around, so I put it back on the shelf and walked upstairs."
(n) - damage sustained by one's equipment in such a fashion. "Aw man! My Hacker-Pschorr boot has a cold break!"
Hopback (v) - to repay borrowed boil additions; interest may or may not be accrued. "I was out of Centennial when I brewed this IPA, and now I need to set aside a six-pack to hopback Griselda."

Top-crop (v) - to slurp foam from the top of a just-poured pint so you can fill it all the way up. "Say, that's an awful lot of foam. I better top-crop this glass before I give it to my mother-in-law."
Yeast bank (n) - a reserve of hidden funds specifically maintained for sub rosa homebrewing purchases; syn: Swiss bank account, offshore account, piggy bank, coffee can, doomsday stash. "Yikes! I need some malt! Time to make a withdrawal from the old yeast bank." "What are you talking about?" "Nothing!"

1 comment:

  1. Vorlauf (v) - to remove an object from a place without permission or to steal, much like what happens to large particulates and lipids when you recycle your wort. "Hey, where did you get that Hacker-Pschorr boot with a cold break?" "Oh, I vorlaufed it from Dawson's rumpus room."

    ReplyDelete