Are you looking to become part of the thriving beer scene but feel intimidated because everyone there is speaking a language you don't understand?
What, exactly, does your beer geek friend mean by "hoppy"? And did he say "bread" or "Brett" when referring to the yeast? Session beer: Is that a good thing? And are you considered cool if you still love Pliny?
Don't panic. Here's a primer to get you up to speed and help you feel at home at your favorite brewery or beer-centric pub.
Craft beer: This refers to the little breweries, the underdogs, the up-and-comers. But wait. Aren't behemoths Sierra Nevada and Lagunitas craft breweries? Well, yes. Craft beer gatekeepers keep changing the definition.
The Brewers Association says any brewery that produces 6 million barrels or less annually, uses traditional brewing methods and is not more than 25 percent owned by non-craft brewing interests qualifies as craft. What about craft breweries that have been gobbled up by the giant breweries but still function largely as independent operations? There is no hard-and-fast rule about that.
Barrel: A unit used to measure beer. It's equal to 31.5 gallons — or two standard kegs.
Hoppy: This adjective may refer to the bitterness you smell and taste in a beer. The term generally is associated with India pale ales and pale ales, whose hoppiness is measured in international bittering units (IBUs). The higher the IBUs, the more bitterness you're going to taste and feel raking over your palate.
To some, it's unpleasantly harsh. To others, it's joyous. But it's also very broad. It can mean citrus, tropical fruit, earthy, dank and more. It's gotten to the point that hoppy can mean so many things that it really isn't very helpful if you use it to describe an IPA.
