Worts

The sweet liquid extracted from mashed malt before fermentation, essentially unfermented beer. Brewers produce it by mashing crushed malt with hot water so that amylase enzymes convert starch to fermentable sugars, then separate the liquid from the spent grains by lautering. It is boiled with hops, cooled, aerated, and pitched with yeast to begin fermentation. Its sugar concentration, measured as specific gravity, predicts the beer’s final alcohol content, while its clarity, pH, and amino-acid composition shape flavour, fermentation health, and stability. High-gravity brewing ferments concentrated worts and dilutes afterward for efficiency. Wort quality, from mash pH to trub separation, is where brewing consistency is won or lost.