Our latest book, Beer-Topia is in stores now. It’s a heady brew of beer miscellany, and here’s an exclusive taste.

Quaff

A deep sip from a glass of beer.

Lace

The bits of foam left on the sides of a glass immediately after a quaff.

Session beer

A beer that’s low in alcohol, generally around 4 percent. If you can have more than one in a sitting, or “session,” and not get too tipsy, then you’ve been drinking a session beer.

Musty

A polite way to say that a beer tastes terrible because it has oxidized.

Head retention

A beer snob’s way of measuring how fast an inch of foam collapses on top of a glass of beer.

Hang

If you’re sitting around during a tasting session and you hear a drinker refer to “hang,” that’s the sign of a persistently bitter beer with a harsh, lingering aftertaste.

Mouthfeel

A way to describe a beer’s physical consistency on the tongue. As with most things of this nature, it’s subjective and a reflection of individual palate.

Astringency

A mouth-puckering flavor that’s a beer snob’s fancy way of saying, “Gross, yuck, spit it out.” It is likely stale, or “skunked.”

Chill haze

The cloudy appearance that results when the proteins and tannins in beer glom onto each other during the cooling process. The way unfiltered wheat beer like Hoegaarden looks? That’s chill haze.

Chlorophenolic

If you happen to be drinking with a big-time beer snob and you find that your brew smells like plastic, you can score points by describing it as “chlorophenolic.” (Then send it back.)

For everything else you’d ever want to know about beer, check out Uncle John’s Beer-Topia.