A brewing control method for use with beverage brewing system (10) uses a controller (52) responsive to a comparison of preselected values of total brew water and total diluent water stored in a program memory (62) and to actual quantities measured by one of two flow meter (36, 36') to control operation of a brew valve (46) passing water to a hot water tank (14) and a diluent valve (50) for passing water directly to a mixing chamber (28). the controller also responds to a level sensor (20) to control the brew valve (46) to keep the hot water tank filled with water. The preselected amounts of diluent and extract are changed for different brewing conditions to obtain different total quantities of beverage or different ratios of hot brew water passed through the brew basket (24) to cold diluent water passed directly to the mixing chamber, or serving urn (28).