Four ingredients carry most beer: malt, water, hops and yeast. Malt provides the sugars, hops bring bitterness and aroma, and yeast turns the sweet liquid into beer. The stages below follow the liquid from crushed grain to a bottle, can or keg. A brewery may combine equipment or add its own finishing steps, but the main route remains recognisable.
Choose and mill the malt
A brewer begins with malted grain, usually barley. Malt choice helps determine the finished beer's colour, flavour and body. Milling breaks the kernels into grist so water can reach the starch inside. The grist still needs to be separated from the liquid later, so this is preparation for the mash, not the finished drink.
Mash with water
In the mash tun, crushed malt meets warm water. Natural enzymes in the malt convert starch into fermentable sugars. The resulting mixture is called the mash. Temperature and time matter because the brewer is making the sweet liquid that yeast will later ferment.
Separate the wort from the grain
Lautering drains the sweet liquid away from the spent grain. That liquid is wort, the name for beer before fermentation. Some breweries mash and lauter in one vessel, while others use a separate lauter tun. Either way, the grain has done its job once the wort has been collected.
Boil the wort and add hops
The wort goes to a kettle for a controlled boil. Hops added here contribute bitterness and flavour. The timing of an addition changes what the brewer draws from them. The boil also helps proteins gather so they can be separated, and a whirlpool can leave behind hop and malt particles before the next stage.
Cool it for yeast
Freshly boiled wort is too hot for the planned fermentation. Brewers cool it to the temperature they want for their yeast, then move it into a fermenter. From this point, clean equipment matters especially because the cooled wort no longer has the boil protecting it from unwanted microbes.
Ferment the wort
The brewer adds yeast, often called pitching. Yeast consumes fermentable sugars and produces alcohol, carbon dioxide and flavour compounds. The beer's character depends in part on the yeast chosen and how fermentation is managed. A fermenting beer can foam and release gas, but those visible signs alone do not tell a brewer that fermentation has finished. A stable density measurement is a more reliable check.
Let the young beer mature
After fermentation, the young beer rests. This conditioning period lets flavours settle and gives yeast and other particles time to drop out. Some beers need only a short rest, while lagers may spend weeks or months at cold temperatures. A brewery might also add hops or other flavourings during this stage.
Package and carbonate
The beer can be put into bottles, cans or kegs. Carbon dioxide may be introduced under pressure, or a brewer may add a measured amount of sugar so remaining yeast creates carbonation in a sealed bottle. Packaging methods differ: some breweries filter or pasteurise, while others leave live yeast in the beer. The result is the same basic transition from beer in a vessel to beer ready to pour.