Beer brewing uses variations on one basic method to create the wide variety of beers available throughout the world. Pilsners, brown and amber ales, stouts and porters all use the same technique to create the wondrous diversity with which beer drinkers are familiar. Varying that technique along with using different types and amounts of grains, hops and yeasts accomplish the differences in flavors and textures.

Beer starts with sprouted barley, or malt. Enzymes created by sprouting barley can turn starches in grains into sugars. When the barley has just sprouted it is roasted to stop the sprouting process. Roasting the malt to varying degrees of darkness can create differing types of malt. These various roasted malts have different flavors and colors with different starch, sugar and protein mixtures. Each brewer chooses a combination of malts to make their own beer creation. By using more dark roasted malt you can have a heavier, darker beer. More light roasted malt results in a lighter beer.

Often other grains are added to the mash to create an even wider variety of flavors. Wheat, corn and rice are commonly used. Greater amounts of these "adjuncts" result in a lighter beer with an even wider variety of flavors.

The mash is heated and held at different temperatures for varying amounts of time to get the desired results. Various enzymes in the malt are most active at certain temperature ranges and these enzymes can turn the starches in the grains into different types of sugars. The temperature is gradually raised, and held for a period of time at desired temperatures, until the mash is finally boiled, stopping all enzymatic activity and fixing the sugars in the mash.

While the mash boils additional flavorings are usually added. The flowers of the hops plant are added at this point to give beer its characteristic bitter taste. Different varieties of hops can have a wide difference in the bittering of the beer and provide other subtle taste differences. Often more malt is added at this point. Since the enzymes of the malt are destroyed by boiling this addition is used to give different, additional, flavors and textures to the finished beer.

The mash is then "sparged" to separate the "wort" from the spent grains and hops. Poured through a screen, the liquid wort goes into a fermenting container to be turned into beer and the remaining solids are removed and discarded. Home brewers often skip this step by buying malt extracts, either in liquid concentrate

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