Wort or beer?

[m_rawdin]

This might be a stupid question but at what stage exactly does wort become beer? As soon as it starts fermenting? When it's finished fermenting etc?

[Secla]

As soon a it starts fermenting i would have though as it will contain alcohol

[Mr Squiffy]

Wort is simply 'un-fermented' beer.

[rpt]

It's often said that wort becomes beer the moment yeast is added. I think this may be a legal definition, but I'm not sure where.

[m_rawdin]

I've asked a few people this question and had 4 different answers, as soon as you pitch the yeast, as soon as fermentation starts, when fermentation stops and when you bottle/cask/keg it at the end as the finished product. Even after Googling it there doesn't seem to be a definite answer, maybe there is no definite answer?

[alexlark]

As soon as your gravity goes down by 0.001

[6470zzy]

I deem it to be beer when I start to drink it.

Cheers

[Stoat on a rope]

I'd say from a Brewers POV it's like alexlark said, once the gravity shifts.

If you're HMRC though, it's a massive grey area...

"7.2 When is beer produced
We have the power to determine the point of production, however, unless we’ve notified you otherwise, the production of beer normally begins when the mash is made and beer is produced when the earliest of any of the following events takes place:

The time when:

the beer is put into any package
beer is removed from the brewery
beer is consumed
the beer is lost (see section 10)
beer reaches that state of maturity at which it is fit for consumption
In relation to the above events, ‘beer’ includes unfinished beer."


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[sheffstevie]

From a brewing perspective this is a sort of "when does a foetus become a person" type of question and (as with the religious/moral arguments) the answer will depend on your point of view - the HMRC point of view is more to do with the "tax point" i.e when can they start charging duty. The bit about beer being lost I assume to refer to infected beer which is destroyed - the duty is calculated and charged but then reclaimed by the brewer ( a bit like bad debt relief for VAT)