Glossary
Definitions here are deliberately short. They orient; the linked pages carry the evidence, the numbers, and the caveats.
Characterized lot — grain whose identity and certificate values travel with it: cultivar, source, protein, and the rest of the paperwork stay attached from seed and lot through delivery, so the numbers and the grain cannot separate. The Lot Reporting Standard defines what gets reported; Identity Preservation covers how identity survives the supply chain.
COA (Certificate of Analysis) — the laboratory report that travels with a malt or grain lot: extract, protein, moisture, color, and related measures. Six of this site's QA pages require one; Batch Records and Ingredient Proof shows where it fits in the evidence chain.
Conversion (saccharification) — the enzymatic work of turning gelatinized starch into fermentable sugar. In this site's process design, external enzymes own conversion; the mechanism is on Enzyme Conversion in the Mash.
Cultivar / hybrid — named breeding material, as opposed to anonymous commodity grain. Naming the material is what makes results comparable and repeatable; see Cultivars for Malting.
Diastatic power (DP) — a malt's combined starch-degrading enzyme potential. Sorghum malt's DP runs far below barley malt's — the finding behind this site's external-enzyme doctrine; see Why Native Malt Enzymes Are Not Enough. Always check the units a report uses; published sorghum data does not always state them.
External enzymes — commercial enzyme preparations added to the mash so conversion does not depend on the malt's own activity. The working doctrine of this site: malt for character, external enzymes for conversion.
FAN (free amino nitrogen) — the yeast-available nitrogen in wort, reported in ppm. Across the malts this site has screened, sorghum wort FAN runs roughly half of barley's, which is why yeast nutrition is a design goal here, not an afterthought.
Gelatinization — starch granules hydrating and swelling until enzymes can reach the starch. Sorghum gelatinizes hotter than barley, and "the" gelatinization temperature is a range and a method question, not one number; see Gelatinization.
Germination (as a grain gate) — on this site, a seed-laboratory warm germination count, not a malting-house germinative-energy test; the distinction and the acceptance floor are on What Makes Good Malting Sorghum.
Gluten-reduced — beer brewed from gluten grain and then enzymatically treated to reduce detectable gluten. This site's position is that gluten-reduced is not gluten-free and not the same product class; the reasoning lives on Gluten-Reduced Beer Is Not Gluten-Free.
Glucoamylase — an enzyme that clips glucose units from the ends of starch chains, driving high fermentability. It is the conversion finish in Mash Protocol 1.
Iodine test — the quick bench check for residual unconverted starch in a mash: iodine stays amber when conversion is complete. Interpretation for a sorghum mash is covered in Mash Protocol 1.
Liquefaction — alpha-amylase thinning gelatinized starch into shorter chains so the mash becomes workable and conversion can proceed. Part of the staged design in Mash Protocol 1.
Lot identity — see Characterized lot.
Mash-out — the end-of-mash temperature step that halts enzyme activity and sets the wort composition. See Mash Protocol 1.
Micro-malting — small-scale standardized malting used to screen many grain samples under one schedule, as the USDA-ARS Madison screening did across 25 named cultivars.
MP1 / MP2 / MP3 — this site's numbered mash protocols: MP1 is the working enzyme-mash baseline, MP2 the decoction/cereal-mash alternative, and MP3 a proposed, untested maltose-forward revival. Mash Methods Compared sets them side by side.
Position / Problem / Research Ask — the three public objects this site runs on: what we recommend and why (a Position, carried in "Why we take this position" folds), what the field has not solved (the Problems page), and specific work that would move one (a Research Ask). How the System Works explains the loop between them.
Reference mash — a fully specified mash — fixed grist mass, liquor ratio, temperature program, enzyme dose — designed so different labs produce comparable numbers. This site's proposed version is in the Sorghum Malt Evaluation Standard.
Rice hulls — inert husk material added to a gluten-free grist to build the lauter bed structure that barley husk provides for free. They contribute nothing to the beer; the rate is tuned, not maximized — see Rice Hull Strategy.
Truly gluten-free — beer built from no-gluten grain from the start: no wheat, no barley, no rye, no oats, ever, with verified inputs and evidence behind the claim. The proposed product-class definition is the Truly Gluten-Free Standard.
Turbidity — suspended haze in wort or beer, the practical clarity battle of sorghum brewing. This site's production QA log measured it in FTU batch by batch; the proposed evaluation standard treats it as a first-class malt measure.
20 ppm — the FDA threshold under which a food may be labeled gluten-free in the US. What that does and does not settle for beer — and who regulates which label — is on Labeling: FDA or TTB.
Missing a term you expected? Tell us — a reader asking is exactly how entries earn their place.