Beer lingos are thrown around everywhere. Be it social media or a casual conversation with beer geeks and passionate craft-beer enthusiasts. With a surge of microbreweries around the world, you will surely stumble upon these beer lingos or hear strange terms being bandied about. To prepare you for this, we’ve collected a humorous key to deciphering some of the slang terms thrown around in the world of beer geekdom. So how well do you know your beer lingo? Let’s test your knowledge..

ABV

When it comes to choosing a beer, ABV – which stands for ‘Alcohol by Volume’, is one of the vital stats and a deciding factor to determine the strength of a beer.

Beer Wall

The art of stacking all the beer cans to build a wall just for the purpose of bragging or showcasing the haul.

BIN

BIN stands for ‘Buy it now’. It’s an online jargon where beer geeks and nerds are hooked onto a rare/limited release beer purchase on a third-party website. Typically, the first person to comment ‘BIN’ on the post will be allowed first dibs on the product in black market.

Cellar

This is where all the beer geeks store their beer bottles that are rare, limited edition and hard to find. It typically involves beer styles such as Barleywines, Imperial Stouts, Lambics etc. Other words such as ageing, cellaring, storing also depict the same meaning.

Cold Crash

Cold crashing is one of the most common beer lingos among the beer connoisseurs and brewers. It is a process where the temperature of the beer is quickly dropped to near-freezing temperatures and held there for about 24 hours. This ensures that the beer drops bright/clear and is ready to be packaged or served.

Collabs

The word ‘collab’ is used when two or more breweries collaborate to brew beer. This is where breweries come together for a cause or just to promote their beer in a neighbourhood.

Crushable

A light and easy-drinking beer that can be drunk in sessions. Beer styles such as light lagers, session IPAs etc are very light in flavour and alcohol to make up for a crushable and refreshing drink. This is one of the most common beer lingo to come across.

Dank

Dank is a reference to a flavour that is derived from the hops. Hop forward beer styles such as Pale Ales, IPAs, New England IPAs often showcase marijuana-like characteristics due to their hop profile. Sure, you can deem any beer you love as dank, meaning high quality, but when you taste a dank IPA, you know it!

DDH

DDH stands for Double Dry Hopped. It is the addition of hops post fermentation on two different days (before and after kegging). This is to enhance the hop aromas in beer styles. More recently, It has turned out to be one of the marketing jargons to promote the IPAs.

Drain Pour

This is perhaps the most saddest among all of the beer slangs. What happens to a beer when it is infected or stale and doesn’t meet the expectations of a drinker? It is poured straight down the drain!

Flocc

Flocc or flocculation refers to the yeast activity where it clumps together post fermentation. Beers that do not flocculate well, tend to be hazier.

Hazies

A beer lingo for New England style IPAs due to their cloudy appearance.

IBU

International Bitterness Units is a measuring scale which is used to calculate the bitterness of a beer. Primarily, hops contribute to the bitter taste of a beer. Keep in mind that IBUs are different from perceived bitterness as it is just a theoretical scale.

Iceman Pour

Iceman pour is a dumb way to pour a beer. It is a widespread and non-aesthetic pouring style which was trending a while ago. Here a beer drinker will fill his/her glass all the way up to the brim leaving no room for the foam/head.

Juicy

One of the most common descriptors for NEIPAs. They are hazy, vibrant and fruity (citrusy character) often resembling a freshly squeezed orange juice.

Killshot

A picture taken of the boneyard or graveyard that results after a long session of drinking. This is where beer enthusiasts often line-up empty bottles to show-off their exhausted stash.

Lacing

Beer lace is the leftover foam or residue you see inside your glass after taking a sip. There are two major factors that determine the laciness of your beer: the type of beer and how clean your glass is. Lacing is usually reflective of a clean glass and probably the ingredients of the beer (specialty malts, leftover proteins) and/or pouring. None of which will make a bad beer good.

Mixed Ferm

Beers that have been fermented by wild yeast or bacteria captured from the air in their natural surroundings. American Wild Ales, Lambic and Gueuze are some of the beer styles.

Mule

A person who is forced by beer enthusiasts to either buy a limited edition beer by standing in line or smuggling it across the state borders. This is, of course, inspired by the word ‘Drug Mule’.

Noob

Noob refers to someone who is new to craft beers. Noobs are often the most excited in their newfound love for great beer, and they should be encouraged. However, you may come across a few noobs who claim to know it all and embarrass themselves.

Pastry

These are modern versions of craft beer that are loaded with sweeter ingredients such as cocoa nibs, vanilla beans, coconut, maple syrup, candy bars or sugars etc. These beers have so much residual sugars that you might as well quit ordering a dessert at the end of your meal.

Proper Glassware

Matching a branded glassware to a beer is what Belgians are very serious about. As breweries have started releasing new glassware for every single new beer they make, it has become harder and harder to have the most proper glassware each time one drinks.

Release

A new beer or the day a new beer comes out that is spoken of with grave importance.

Session-able

This is just another beer lingo for ‘Crushable’.