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>> Actually, it's pronounced "wert"...
>> ----------->Denny[/color]
>
> Really???
> I feel a bit stupid now :(
> If this is true I'll have to find a new LHBS, I have been grossly
> misinformed......[/color]

I wouldn't worry about the LHBS. A lot of us on the 'Net have never
heard a lot of these words pronounced - only written!

Here is a basic explanation from this group back in 1997 (Google!),
plus some others of interest. Note that wort is from Old English, not
from German! The Old English spelling (wyrt) probably explains the
pronounciation:

Wort is a liquid formed by soaking mash in hot water and then
fermenting it to make beer. The word comes from the Old English
wyrt, meaning root or herb and is akin to the Old High German
wurze, or brewer's wort.

Brewers remove trub, a haze that forms on wort during either
its boiling or its cooling phase, from the liquid. Why? Well,
a look at the word's etymological ancestry might explain: trub
comes from German and is related to words meaning dim, murky,
turbid, muddy, dirty, and dregs.

Some brewing terms perform double duty. Wort that is fermenting
is known as krausen. The same term is also used as a verb refering
to the process of adding strong, newly fermenting wort to beer
to produce natural carbonation. Krausen comes from a German verb
meaning to curl back from the edge, a description of the beer's
foam during this process.

A beer made in one brewing is called a gyle, and fermenting
wort added to ale or stout is also called gyle. Gyle is another
Germanic word; it's derived from a Middle Dutch word for boil
or ferment.

Derric