Glossary
Wort
The sweet, unfermented liquid produced by mashing malt in hot water — beer before yeast has touched it.
Pronounced wert, rhyming with "hurt".
Also called sweet wort, worts.
Wort contains the sugars, proteins, minerals and flavour compounds extracted from grain. Everything the finished beer will be is present at this point except alcohol, carbonation and whatever the yeast contributes.
It is pronounced "wert". The spelling is an inheritance from Old English rather than a clue to the sound.
Related
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Burtonisation · Cask conditioning · Centrifugation
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.