Brewing beer on a very small scale, such as at a microbrewery or brewpub, is similar to brewing beer at a large national brewery. The basic ingredients and processes are the same. The difference is in the details.

Large breweries tend toward a more scientific approach to brewing, and smaller breweries tend toward a more artistic and creative approach to brewing. Part of the reason for this difference is the scale of the brewery, and also the final consumers for the beer.

Beer made by large breweries is made in very large volumes for a very large number of consumers, therefore the beer has to be the type of beer that a large quantity of people will buy and drink. Large breweries' beers tend to be medium to light in aroma, flavor and alcohol.

Small breweries generally sell to a small and local customer base. Their batch size is smaller, therefore they can take risks in creativity. They can experiment with beers that are very high in aroma, color, flavor and alcohol. If they produce a beer nobody buys, they can dump it without losing much more than the cost of ingredients and labor. Currently there are regional differences in small breweries' beers, and that trend may continue to develop over time.

If a large brewery tried to make an experimental beer and it failed, the large brewery would lose money on advertising and packaging in addition to the huge amount of money it would lose on product, ingredients, labor, and overhead. This is in spite of its greater economies of scale.

Therefore you will nearly always find the beers from small breweries much more robust, unique and unusual, and the beers from large breweries more mainstream and rarely experimental or daring. Thus small breweries fill a market niche for the gourmet or discriminating beer drinker.

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