All beers are brewed using a process based on a simple formula. Key to the process is malted grain--depending on the region, traditionally barley, wheat or sometimes rye. (When malting rye, due care must be taken to prevent ergot poisoning (ergotism), as rye is particularly prone to developing this toxic fungus during the malting process.)

The brewing process is typically divided into 7 steps: mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering, and filling.