Have you ever wondered how that frosty mug of beer came to be? The process of brewing beer has been perfected over thousands of years into a science that creates one of life’s simplest pleasures. From malted barley to your glass, the journey of beer-making is complex yet fascinating. So, let’s learn how is beer made!
The beer-making process starts with malting barley to unlock sugars. Brewers mash the grains to create wort and boil it with hops. After cooling, yeast ferments the wort into beer and packages it after conditioning. Each step transforms the ingredients to produce the refreshing beverage enjoyed worldwide.
Brewing beer involves many fascinating steps that transform raw ingredients into a drink enjoyed globally. The malting of grains kicks off the process, unlocking sugars to create wort. Brewers then carefully control temperatures and timing during mashing, boiling, and fermentation to produce beer’s golden hue and balanced flavors. While the high-level journey has been briefly outlined, the full story contains greater richness in detail. Keep reading our step-by-step guide to learn more about each phase that makes up beer’s journey from the start to your glass.
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Table of Contents
How is beer made step-by-step
Let us look at how is beer made step by step:
Malting
Malting is the first step in brewing, where barley is soaked, germinated, and dried. This process converts the barley’s starches into fermentable sugars that will later become alcohol.
Fresh barley contains high levels of starch, which yeast cannot ferment. So, during malting, barley is soaked in water to initiate germination. This activates enzymes that break down the barley’s starches into sugars.
Brewers spread the soaked barley in a thin layer on the floor of the malting house. They regularly turn it on for air circulation to promote even germination. As the barley germinates, the enzymes break down starch into fermentable sugars like maltose and maltotriose.
After several days of germination, brewers dry the sprouted barley in a kiln. The drying process halts germination and develops the barley’s color, flavor, and aroma. Different kilning temperatures produce different colors of malt, from pale to dark.
Milling
After malting, the grain is milled to crack its protective husk and expose the starchy endosperm. This allows the mashed water to access the malt sugars during mashing.
Milling breaks the grain into grist by rolling it between heavy rollers inside the mill. The grist then falls through screens that sift out the husks from the starchy endosperm. Coarser grists are produced for lighter beers, while finer grists are made for darker, fuller-bodied beers.
The husks and dust produced during milling are separated and can be reused as animal feed. Uniform grist sizes help ensure consistent mashing and maximum sugar extraction later in brewing. Milling is an important quality control step that affects a beer’s body, flavor, and fermentability.
Mashing
Mashing is soaking the crushed malt (barley, wheat, or other grains used in beer making) in hot water. The malt’s natural enzymes help break down the starch in the grains into fermentable sugars.
It occurs in a mash tun containing grains and hot water. The water temperature is meticulously controlled, typically ranging between 148 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Within this temperature range, various enzymes activate to break down the starch.
The mashing process typically takes 1-2 hours to complete. After mashing, brewers remove the grains, leaving behind the sweet liquid wort. Wort contains the sugars that will become alcohol during fermentation.
Lautering
Lautering is the process of separating the sweet wort liquid from the grains after mashing. This is done in a lauter tun with a false bottom holding the grains. The wort is collected from valves at the bottom of the tun.
First, the temperature of the mash is raised slightly in a process called mash-out to get the wort to flow more freely. Then, the wort is recirculated over the grains to filter it. This helps remove particles from the wort.
Finally, brewers gently spray hot water over the grains in a process called sparging. This rinses any remaining sugars from the grains into the wort.
Once sparging is complete, brewers remove the spent grains and collect the clear wort in the brew kettle, ready for the subsequent steps of boiling, hopping, and fermentation.
Boiling
Boiling is important when heating the wort at a very high temperature. This temperature is much higher than mashing and is around 100 degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Boiling helps to remove unwanted things from the wort, like enzymes and bacteria that could spoil the beer. It also helps the wort to stabilize by lowering the acidity level. Another important thing to do during boiling is to add hops.
Hops provide bitterness, flavor, and aroma and act as a natural preservative for beer. Brewers can add hops at various times during boiling to incorporate their unique properties into the beer. Typically, boiling takes 60 to 90 minutes.
It is important to constantly stir the wort to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the brew kettle. Once boiling is complete, brewers quickly cool down the wort before fermentation.
Fermenting
Fermenting is when yeast is added to the wort, converting sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The same is added while making Root beer. It usually takes place in two stages – primary and secondary fermentation.
In primary fermentation, the yeast actively works to produce alcohol and CO2 inside a sealed fermenter. This stage usually lasts around 7-10 days. Then, during secondary fermentation, brewers transfer the beer to another vessel to further clarify and mature for 1-2 weeks.
The temperature must be between 18-21 degrees Celsius during fermentation for optimal yeast health. The carbon dioxide produced is released through an airlock. Completion of fermentation is indicated by low or no bubbling from the airlock. So this is how is beer made using fermentation.
Conditioning
After fermentation, the beer needs time to mature and develop flavor. This is called conditioning. During conditioning, the beer is stored in large tanks for several weeks at cold temperatures.
This allows the yeast to continue working slowly, eating residual sugars and producing carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide naturally carbonates the beer from within, giving it bubbles.
Conditioning also gives the beer’s flavors time to mellow out and blend nicely. Certain beers, especially stronger or darker styles, benefit from longer conditioning to smooth out harsh edges.
Conditioning readies the beer for packaging by clarifying it and ensuring it has the right level of carbonation.
Filtering
Before packaging, brewers filter the beer to remove remaining yeast cells and particles that could cause haze or sediment in the final product. Filtering helps stabilize the beer and gives it a bright, clear appearance.
It is done either before or after conditioning. There are different filtration methods, but most involve running the beer through various filter materials like diatomaceous earth or filter sheets.
This traps any remaining solids but allows the liquid beer to pass through cleanly. Filtering is only sometimes necessary, as some beer styles are traditionally bottle-conditioned and enjoy a bit of cloudiness. But it helps ensure maximum clarity and stability for most beer types.
Packaging
Packaging is the final step in the beer-making process. After fermentation and filtering, brewers must store the beer in airtight containers to carbonate it and for later enjoyment.
Homebrewers use two main packaging methods: bottling and kegging for beer packaging. Bottling involves filling sanitized beer bottles with fermented beer and adding a small amount of sugar to allow natural carbonation. Kegging uses pressurized carbon dioxide gas to carbonate the beer inside sealed metal kegs.
Both methods require special equipment, such as cappers, bottle fillers, kegs, and CO2 tanks. With bottling, the beer undergoes carbonation over a period of 2 weeks before it is ready for drinking.
With kegging, force carbonation is faster, at 4 days. Kegging allows for tapping beer on demand from the kegerator tap, while bottled beer requires individual opening. So this is how is beer made.
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What are the 5 main Ingredients in Beer? – Used
Here are the five main ingredients in beer in simple terms:
- Malted grain: This is usually barley that has been soaked, germinated, and dried. This provides the sugars needed to make alcohol. Common grains include barley, wheat, oats, and rye.
- Water: Clean water is needed to soak the grains and create the wort liquid. The quality of the water affects the taste of the finished beer.
- Hops: Hops add bitterness, flavor, and aroma. They balance the sweetness from the grains. Brewers typically add hops at the beginning, middle, or end of the boiling process.
- Yeast: Yeast is a microorganism that eats sugars and ferments them into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Different yeasts are used for ales and lagers.
- Flavorings (sometimes) – Extra ingredients like fruits, spices, coffee, or other flavors may be added. But the main five that always go into the beer are malted grains, water, hops, yeast, and sometimes extra flavorings.
The brewing process starts by soaking grains to get sugars, boiling the liquid with hops, cooling, and fermenting with yeast. Proper cleaning is also important between each step. This helps explain the basic five ingredients that make beer!
FAQs
Is beer good for health?
Beer can be part of a healthy lifestyle if consumed in moderation. Like most things, too much is not good. One beer per day for women or up to two for men is okay. Beer has antioxidants from hops and can increase good cholesterol.
What are the 2 types of beer?
The main types of beer are ales and lagers. Ales ferment with top-fermenting yeast, which operates more effectively at warmer temperatures. Lagers ferment with bottom-fermenting yeast, which functions best in cooler temperatures.

Kendall Jones: Seattle journalist, freelance writer, and top contributor to Washington Beer Blog. Published 5,400+ stories on beer and brewing.