Wort (brewing)

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Wort (IPA [wɜ(r)t]) is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whiskey. Wort contains the sugars that will be fermented by the yeast added to the solution once it has cooled down sufficiently to allow the yeast to survive.

After the barley is malted it is ground to grist. The grist is then mashed, that is, mixed with hot water and steeped, a complex and slow heating process that enables enzymes to convert the starch in the malt into sugars. At the end of the mashing, the hot wort is decanted or filtered, cooled, and the yeast is added to start the fermentation.

Before the mashing of the barley, other grains can be added to create varietal beers such as wheat beer and oatmeal stout, to create grain whiskey, or to cheapen the beer ingredients, as in the case of most beer produced by large breweries in North America.

In beer making, it is known as "sweet wort" until the hops have been added, after which is is then "hopped wort."