See, I am being positive in 2012. Happy almost. Giddy as a school girl. So, unlike others, I see the world with the glass half full... or would it be half empty after enjoying a great new surprise.... I don't know. Point is: there must be great words that are not being used enough. Here are seven of my favorites:

→ Acrid: the bitter burnt taste of the land beyond roasted. Sounds like a cat coughing up a fur ball if you linger on the "cr" which is what a beer displaying this characteristic should go down like.

→ Drain: Good for two purposes. First, when others at the best are sipping four ounce tipples pretending sometime it is a very fine thing to drain the glass at one go. Conversely, sometimes even when you have paid $23.99 for that 275 ml tiny custom made Swedish oak cask carrying one apricot inside as well as 250 ml of 17% stout, well, sometimes it deserves the drain.

→ Heat: beer is booze and sometimes it leaves a burn. We too often try to balance it, bury in hops or lighten the strength. Sometimes it's the heat you want if we admit it.

→ Lick(ing): one of my favorite descriptors as in "...like licking shale side on." Beer is a tactile experience. Use what's in your face.

→ Nip: the appropriate size for beer of 9% and more. Sounds like when you drain one quick around the corner when no one is watching.

→ Vom: some lager yeast strains have this note of bile that seems intentional. I have almost come to kinda like it.

→ Water(y): brewers are not alchemists. Like human beingss, beer is also usually well above 80% water. It conveys and carries taste. It's hard. It's soft. And nine-tenths or more of that stuff in you stash is just this.

Words are great. We get in ruts. We think that we've hit some sort of new height and then the dictionary slaps us up behind the ear. That's at least a start. How many more underused beer words are there?