German Beer & Brewing Terms

Remove floater from steeps or to remove Kraeusen or yeast head from the fermenters - "skimming."

Obtaining the clear wort.

"Old" in German, a top fermenting style of German beer.

The start of fermentation. Appearance of foam head, "to come through."

"Racking", Starting to transfer wort or beer into tanks.

The pitching of the yeast into the cooled, aerated wort.

Agitate, aerate or rousing of the yeast.

Beer mug/stein

Bitterness is a taste sensation experienced between the tongue and palette. In beer it primarily comes from the contents of the hops

The German word for strong, denoting a strong beer brewed from barley malt. Bock beers are traditionally served in autumn, late winter and spring. It was originally brewed by top fermentation in the Hanseatic League town of Einbeck (beck >bock) in Lower Saxony, where it is still brewed (and known as Ur-Bock, the original bock). It was once a heavy dark beer brewed in winter for consumption in spring. German bock beers are now brewed by bottom fermentation and are usually dark brown. Pale bocks are increasing in popularity and a distinction is sometimes made between light bock beer and dark bock beer. Because the word bock also means billy goat in German, a goat is often represented on the labels of bockbier.