What's with all the random German vocab in the homebrewing world?
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helibrewer
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English is a Germanic language, just think of it as digging into our linguistic history.
LandoLincoln
Well-Known Member
I see no reason why we should call it "recycling" instead of "vorlauf." Unless you're some kind of xenophobe.
Where other languages borrow words (most of the computer industry uses english words not native words for things like programer and such), English follows other languages down dark alleys, mugs it and rifles through the pockets for loose grammer and spare words.
English has something like 1 million words and counting (including pajamas from the Indian SubContinent). The makes as Asimov noted lymerics much easier in English because of the flexablity of words at many lengths and rhymes to mean the same thing. Red, crimson and vermillion basically all convey the color red, although slightly differently. But for a lymeric each could be used.
And English is making up word from others at times - take bash which in unix stands for 'bourne again shell' far to long, and is shortened to bash. While some would say it is an acroynym, it actually now is basically a word.
Just be glad you don't also do wine with it's words (vintometer anyone? plato?) , or mead with it's words 5 basically different words to mean 'honey wine with X' - no I'm not braggot here. Each field has it's words traced to the origin of that field.
For the record, I agree with your assessment. After reading the comments and digesting them, I agree with most of what's been said and I have changed my mind. My original post was a little ridiculous and I think the German terms are appropriate.
Though I've just conceded on public record, I'm sure there will come more posts after this one, which will not take that into account.
I don't think recycle is the bed synonym for vorlof. I don't really say vorlof much, I usually say recirculate.
The other examples are not so much a foreign language as they are jargon. If you look up Lautering it will refer to a brewing process.
The other examples are not so much a foreign language as they are jargon. If you look up Lautering it will refer to a brewing process.
homebrewdad
Well-Known Member
Love this description.
Echoloc8
Acolyte of Fermentalism
I think it also comes down to precision is most cases. "Recirculation" can refer to the process we call vorlaufing, but also processes involving paperwork and pool water. Ditto "foam layer" and others.
But "vorlauf" has more meaning than just recirculation of wort. There's clarification/filtration involved and settling of the grain bed.
Same for "kraeusen," which is both the foam itself, the state of generating the foam (high kraeusen), and (more obscurely in verb form) the process of using wort to prime while bottling.
Ditto "lauter": there's denaturing of enzymes (in the absence of a mashout), washing of sugars from the grain, raising of pH.
Plus, in all cases, you know the speaker's talking about beer. Each of these terms comes with a context (beer-makin' talk) and has both connotations and denotations that substitute terms just don't.
Best just to use the proper terms.
-Rich
But "vorlauf" has more meaning than just recirculation of wort. There's clarification/filtration involved and settling of the grain bed.
Same for "kraeusen," which is both the foam itself, the state of generating the foam (high kraeusen), and (more obscurely in verb form) the process of using wort to prime while bottling.
Ditto "lauter": there's denaturing of enzymes (in the absence of a mashout), washing of sugars from the grain, raising of pH.
Plus, in all cases, you know the speaker's talking about beer. Each of these terms comes with a context (beer-makin' talk) and has both connotations and denotations that substitute terms just don't.
Best just to use the proper terms.
-Rich
Yes! Texans do that all the time!
I was telling my neighbor (from San Antonio) that sometime I'd like to have him try some of these beers I like from Real Ale Brewing.
He asked me where it was made, and I said, "Blanco" (not far from San Antonio). I speak Spanish a little, by the way.
He looked puzzled for a bit, and finally said, "Oh, you mean BLANK-o"
Um, yeah. Blanko, not Blanco the color!
And when he left, he smiled, waved and said, "Bueno bye!"
No lie. Bueno bye.
Texans. Gotta love 'em!
KegWrangler
Well-Known Member
I say we just american-ize them...
Freedom Foam
Freedom Flush?
Freedom Filter
Freedom Foam
Freedom Flush?
Freedom Filter
Nightshade
Well-Known Member
I am late to the thread but...
I don't ever say vorlauf, instead I call it recirculation...in fact Iuntil recently I had no idea what vorlauf even was lol
I don't ever say vorlauf, instead I call it recirculation...in fact Iuntil recently I had no idea what vorlauf even was lol
tgmartin000
Well-Known Member
Last night I ate some thin noodles covered with tomato sauce and Italian herbs, it was excellent. I followed it up with a thin layer of dough, covered in tomato sauce and cheese, with that long skinny dried italian meat. Also excellent. Washed it all down with a fermented beverage made from barley, hops, water, and yeast!
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Prost!!!!
shataway
Well-Known Member
Slow_Day said:
Amen brother! I insist pronouncing trub like tub and not troob, tun like fun and not toon. Right, wrong, or ignorant, thats how I roll. To non-brewers, I translate similar as the OP suggests.
Fizzycist
Well-Known Member
The remainder come mostly from Old French, with a few from Latin and Greek, plus one from Hindi!
Slightly OT but which one's the Hindi one?
Pundit, from 'paṇḍit' (teacher).
To be fair, though, context is a non-trivial factor. Meaning doesn't happen in a vacuum. If I were talking about homebrewing and mentioned that I "recirculate," the first thing that jumps to mind would not be paperwork or pool water. "Vorlauf" is more precise, but nobody's going to get confused and run off to the nearest pool pump if I say "recirculate."
And for that matter, when we're brewing and we talk about "water," how do we all know we're talking about potable water, rather than water from the ocean or falling from the sky? Shouldn't we have a special word for the fluid that is combined with grain to make wort? (and another word for the water that has been altered to style-specific mineral profiles)
Perhaps "vorlauf" is in a "jargon-optional" category. Unlike "wort," which truly has no meaningful English equivalent. Well, I guess you could say "sugar water." So I suppose it all comes down to where you draw that line.
And for that matter, when we're brewing and we talk about "water," how do we all know we're talking about potable water, rather than water from the ocean or falling from the sky? Shouldn't we have a special word for the fluid that is combined with grain to make wort? (and another word for the water that has been altered to style-specific mineral profiles)
Perhaps "vorlauf" is in a "jargon-optional" category. Unlike "wort," which truly has no meaningful English equivalent. Well, I guess you could say "sugar water." So I suppose it all comes down to where you draw that line.
(and then the ghost of the horse starts to haunt me, yet I continue beating ...)
Sure. But if you have a RIMS setup (recirculating infusion mash system), are you recirculating or vorlaufing? You're recirculating. Vorlauf is an EVEN MORE specific term related to setting the grain bed and providing clarity.
I recirculate several things during the course of a brew day. I vorlauf once.
We do, although it's not as often used. Liquor. Or "Brewing liquor".
Why do you think it's called your HLT (hot liquor tank) even though there's only water in it?
you could edit your original post to help prevent some of that.
For a while, my sister lived in the Ozarks.
She lived in [outside of, actually] the town of Gravois Mills. Which was not too far from Versailles.
Or, as the locals called them, Grav-oyz Mills and Ver-sails.
But they* went and picked a word that's supposed to add a level of precision & specificity which, ironically, has multiple meanings. Unless you're literally supposed to fill your HLT with whiskey or whatever.
(* "they" being the shadowy brewing linguistics illuminati who control our jargon)
I wish I could claim it was mine originally, but it isn't. However if you want, you can claim it is yours when you repeat it. I can't remember if I said in the original post that English has over 1 million words, the nearest competitor has like 200K.
As you indicate in your previous post, counting words is ultimately an exercise in definitions as much as anything else. If you include proper names, for example, the number becomes very high very quickly. Morphology also makes the issue thorny; are 'brew' and 'brewing' different words, for example? By their own particular metrics, the OED puts the number of distinct English words somewhere near 600k, though many of those are very archaic.
However, the idea that English has a lexicon five times the size of the next largest language is hard to justify. Though English has expanded its reach with aggressive borrowing, so have many other languages.
Wirklich? Es ist leichter, weil wir die Begriffe schon wissen. 
Ah, but when I hear "recirculate", I think HERMS or RIMS (which both have the word "recirculate" in their very definitions) and certainly not vorlaufing.
Liquor is brewing water, always, and I often hear it referred to that way when I'm in a brewery.
Like I said, they are terms specific to brewing, and not just "German", but instead they are brewing terms.
Anyone who brews knows what a mashtun is, or a lautertun, or a mash/lautertun.
Wort is wort, until the yeast is "pitched". Racking is a winemaking/brewing term as well. It's not German, but we all know what it means.
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