Wort is a liquid that is extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. It contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort also contains crucial amino acids to provide nitrogen to the yeast as well as more complex proteins contributing to beer head retention and flavor. The first step in wort production is to obtain malt, which is made from dried, sprouted cereal grains, including barley. The malt is run through a mill, cracking the husk and exposing the starch inside. The milled grain is then mashed by mixing it with hot water, and then steeped, a process that enables enzymes to convert the starch in the malt into sugars which dissolve in the water. Sometimes the mash is heated at set intervals to alter the enzyme activity. At the end of boiling, the hot wort is quickly cooled to a temperature suitable for yeast fermentation.
Wort is also an important term in the brewing process. It is essentially unfermented beer, the sweet, malty liquid that begins by converting the starches of malted grains into sugar (the process of mashing) . Hot water is added to this mash to allow the enzymes to finish the conversion from starch to sugar. The resulting wort, which can be as much as 90 percent water, is now ready for brewing.
In addition, the suffix "wort" is given to plants that were long considered beneficial. The opposite of wort was a weed, such as ragweed, knotweed, or milkweed. Plants with "wort" in their name were considered beneficial. For example, St. Johns wort is a plant named after one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, and it earned its "wort" name from the time of year when it blooms.
