Additive: Enzymes, preservatives and antioxidants which may be added to beer to simplify the brewing process or to prolong shelf life.

Alcohol: Ethyl alcohol or ethanol. An intoxicating by-product of fermentation, caused by yeast acting on sugars in the malt.

Alcohol content: Alcohol content is expressed as a percentage of volume or weight.

Ale: Beers brewed with top-fermenting yeast strains. The top-fermenting yeast performs at warmer temperatures than yeasts used to brew lager beer.

Amber: Any top or bottom-fermented beer having an amber color: between pale and dark.

Anaerobic: The ability to metabolise without oxygen present e.g. bottom-fermenting lager yeast.

Aroma Hops: Variety of hop chosen for its bouquet.

Astringent: Drying, puckering taste. Can be derived from boiling the grains, long mashes, over-sparging or sparging with hard water.

Barley: A grain malted for use in the mash in the brewing of beer.

Bitter: Bitterness of hops or malt husks; sensation on back of tongue. A bitter flavour in beer is from iso-alpha-acid in solution (derived from hops).

Black Malt: Partially malted barley roasted at high temperatures. Black malt gives a dark colour and a roasted flavour to beer.

Body: Thickness and mouth-filling property of a beer described as "full or thin-bodied".

Bottom-fermenting yeast: One of the two types of yeast used in brewing. Bottom-fermenting yeast works well at low temperatures and ferments more sugars leaving a crisp, clean taste and then settles to the bottom of the tank. Also called "lager yeast".

Brew Kettle: The vessel in which wort from the mash is boiled with hops. Also called a copper.

Bung: The stopper in the hole in a keg or cask through which the keg or cask is filled and emptied. The hole may also be referred to as a bung or bunghole.