Different Brewing Styles

There are a only a few ways to make homebrewed beer: the Malt Extract method, Partial Grain method, and All Grain Method. Upon these basic methods, there are unlimited variations of ingredients for making different kinds of beer, but they all rely on one of these basic techniques of beer brewing. I will explain here in a general overview the methods the tools you will need for each method, and how each technique builds upon the knowledge of the previous. The Malt extract method is the simplest of these techniques, and is usually the first one that is put into use by a beginning home brewer. The All grain method is the most advanced, and is used by most experienced home brewers, and the Partial Grain method lies everywhere in between.

Malting is the key to beer brewing. It is the process by which the starch of the barley grains are turned into sugar. The process involves soaking the barley grains until they start to sprout, then drying and roasting the barley until the new life within the grains dies. The key is that the grains are not heated very much, thus the enzymes produced by the grains are still active, even though the plant’s seed has stopped growing. This process is called malting. These enzymes are what transform starch into sugar.

Malt Extract method
By using the Malt Extract method of home brewing, one bypasses the need to transform the starch contained in grains into yeast-digestable sugar. The sugars have already been transformed by the enzymes of the malting process and boiled down to a thick, sticky, and sweet syrup. This syrup is then melted into water, which becomes the wort, the basis of your beer.

Partial Grain Technique
By using the partial grain technique, a brewer is moving towards mastering the mashing process. This is the process by which malted grain is used to transform a mash (a mix of starchy and malted grains and warm, but not hot water) into a sweet wort (what we call the beer before fermentation). The partial rain technique is like hedging your bet. While one is still unfamiliar with the mashing process, sometimes the wort will not get sweet enough to produce a decent beer. By adding malt extract, you ensure that your beer is going to turn out fine, regardless of how well your mash goes. Also, it can be difficult with mashing to get a high enough alcohol level in your beer. In this case, malt extract can be added when attempting to build a beer with a high alcohol level, such as a scotch ale or barley wine.

All Grain Beer Brewing Process
The All Grain beer brewing process is the most difficult of the three processes, and is ideally suited for larger scale brewing operations. Almost all micro breweries use this technique to produce their beers, and most experienced hobby brewers do as well. The primary reason for this is that All Grain brewing is, by far, the least expensive method to use for beer brewing. It is also the method by which the most control can be gained over the taste of your brews. This process involves strict temperature control, so, often, home brewers will utilize a beer cooler as an insulator for their mash, something to hold the mash at a certain temperature. This is where the enzymes do their best work, until the wort has gained the desired sweetness. This process requires wire mesh filters, and, often, brewing pots with spigots and false mesh bottoms are used. After the wort is drained out, the grains are rinsed to extract the last of the sugars from them and that water is added to the wort as well.

These three methods are the basis of all beer brewing operations. Each has its merits and detriments, and also builds upon the knowledge of the previous, but one need not start with the Malt Extract method – although it is simpler. The All Grain method is not terribly complicated, and after seeing it done once by an experienced home brewer, one can usually grasp all the processes involved.