Beer Glossary
This glossary defines the words used in the world of beer. Click a word to see its definition. To narrow your search, you can also select a letter below.
8 words for the letter G
No words match your search.
G
Galopin
Small 12.5 cl beer glass, half a demi.
Gambrinus
Gambrinus is a figure known throughout Europe, who appears from the 16th century onward in the Netherlands and Belgium. The origin of this legendary king remains obscure: some say he was Jan Primus (John I), Duke of Brabant in the 13th century; others say he was John the Fearless, who introduced the use of hops in brewing.
Gay-Lussac
Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac was a French scientist who developed, in 1824, an alcoholmeter that measures alcohol content in °GL. He also established a chemical formula for fermentation.
Generous
A beer with a generous taste leaves a lasting sensation after a sip. It is a dense beer whose flavor lingers in the mouth, unlike beers that seem to flow down the throat like water.
Germination
The transformation of barley into malt.
Gose
Tart, slightly salty wheat beer flavored with coriander, originally from Goslar, which later became a specialty of Leipzig, Germany.
Gruit
Gruit (gruyt) was a mixture of spices frequently used in the Middle Ages to flavor beer. It has disappeared with the advent of hops.
Gueuze
True gueuze, specifically Belgian and from the Brussels region, is the result of spontaneous fermentation (the yeasts come from the surrounding air and are not added by the brewer; they are of the Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus type and are found in the wild only in the Senne valley, around Brussels). Made from a blend of lambics (the base product) of different ages (1, 2 and 3 years for good gueuzes), it is a very difficult beer to make, sensitive to weather conditions, slow to produce, and ill-suited to today's demands for profitability. This is why, even in Belgium, some gueuze brewers do not hesitate to cut their products with top-fermented beer, add sugar, filter them, pasteurize them... to meet, they say, the demands of the public and economic constraints. France is currently trying to produce gueuze, which has caused an outcry among Belgian brewers (understandably), as gueuze is legally protected in Belgium (although its definition leaves something to be desired).