A beer making system may use a detachable vessel to contain liquid during the mashing and boiling steps, and may also be used during the fermentation steps of beer making. The beer making system may recirculate liquid through the vessel, then select between several flow paths during the beer making process. A removable reservoir system having a grain reservoir and several hops or adjunct reservoirs may be selected as a flow path, as well as a bypass flow path. A programmable controller may cause liquid to recirculate through a heater and one of the various flow paths, the sequence, timing, and temperature profile of which are defined in a recipe for a particular beer.