1. Beer Terminology
Beer and Food Pairing

2. Alcohol by volume: Amount of alcohol in beer in terms of percentage volume of alcohol per volume of beer.
Ale: Beers distinguished by use of top fermenting yeast strains, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The top fermenting yeast perform at warmer temperatures than do yeast's used to brew lager beer, and their byproducts are more evident in taste and aroma. Fruitiness and esters are often part of an ale's character.
Terms to Know

3. Astringent: A drying, puckering taste; tannic; can be derived from boiling the grains, long mashes, over sparging or sparging with hard water.
Barley: A cereal grain that is malted for use in the grist that becomes the mash in the brewing of beer.
Body: Thickness and mouth-filling property of a beer described as "full or thin bodied".
Terms to Know

4. Bottle-conditioning: Secondary fermentation and maturation in the bottle, creating complex aromas and flavors.
Fermentation: Conversion of sugars into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide, through the action of yeast.
Hefe: A German word meaning "yeast". Used mostly with wheat (weiss) beers to denote that the beer is bottled or kegged with the yeast in suspension (hefe-weiss).
Terms to Know

5. IBU: International Bitterness units
IBU: International Bitterness units. A system of indicating the hop bitterness in finished beer.
Lager: Beers produced with bottom fermenting yeast strains, Saccharomyces uvarum (or carlsbergensis) at colder fermentation temperatures than ales. This cooler environment inhibits the natural production of esters and other byproducts, creating a crisper tasting product.
Terms to Know

6. Alcohol By Volume (ABV)
A measurement of the alcohol content in terms of the percentage volume of alcohol per volume of beer.
To calculate the approximate volumetric alcohol content, subtract the final gravity from the original gravity and divide by Formula: ABV = (OG – FG)
Example: OG 1.050, FG 1.012
ABV = (1.050 – 1.012) /
ABV = /
ABV = 5.066
ABV = 5.1% (approximately)

7. Color/Standard Reference Method (SRM)
Light Yellow (1-1.5), Straw (2-3), Pale (4), Gold (5-6)
Light Amber (7), Amber (8), Medium Amber (9), Copper/Garnet (10-12)
Saddle Brown (16-17), Dark Brown (18-24), Dark (25-39), Black (40+)

10. Esters (Fruity)
Esters are very common in beer and are formed when an alcohol and an acid react in a process with the highly original name esterification. Esters can be desirable in certain amounts in certain ale styles, or they may be considered off flavors, especially in lagers. Aromas and flavors attributable to esters include:
Anise
Apple
Banana
Honey
Juicy Fruit gum
Nail polish remover
Pear
Pineapple
Strawberry
Because ester production increases with fermentation temperature, ales generally express greater ester character than lagers. Even within the ale family, ester levels can vary dramatically, from the subtle apples of Kölsch to the generically “fruity” nose of a cask bitter all the way to the powerful banana notes in Bavarian Hefeweizen. Other factors that can affect ester production include fermentor geometry, wort composition, and yeast selection.

11. Phenols (Spicy)
While style-appropriate esters are usually pleasant, phenols are almost always off flavors. Phenols are associated with the following characteristics:
Cloves
Medicine (especially sore throat spray)
Pepper
Smoke
Sweaty horse blankets
Tannins
Vanilla
The same Bavarian yeast strains that give Hefeweizen its signature banana character also create clove-like phenols. Tannins, also known as polyphenols, deliver an astringent, puckering sensation to the palate. Smoky flavors can come from smoked malt, of course, but they can also arise from bacterial infection. And sweaty horse blankets are simply normal by-products of certain (but not all!) Brettanomyces fermentations. Belgian Trappist ales and saisons are excellent illustrations of phenols positively contributing to beer character.