Things have changed a lot since the 1980s. Now, with homebrew shops in most towns, and virtual ones populating the internet, there’s no reason to whip up bathtub beer. If you want to do an extract brew, you can get quality syrups or dry powder and add sachets of crushed specialty grain for more complexity. We can now buy high-quality hops, packaged fresh in oxygen-free containers. Yeast is perhaps the biggest improvement, and that alone allows homebrewers to make beer of professional quality. The extract allows brewers to skip the mashing stage and save time.

So what are the downsides? Making extract beer is like baking cake with a cake mix. It robs the brewer of the ability to finely tune his recipe, and worse, makes it impossible for him to shape his beer through different mashing techniques. So much of the beer's character is built in the mash. Brewers can now choose from among many different base malt types beyond the dozens of specialty malts. In mashing you control the fermentability of your wort, meaning you can make it thinner or thicker, sweeter or drier.

And if the ingredients and equipment for making extract brewing have improved since the 80s, they've gotten even more impressive on the all-grain side. (I have a very crude set-up compared to the kinds of rocketships you can build--but aren't required to--if you wish.) Extract brewing saves a bit of time, but not that much; you only need 60-90 minutes more to make a regular batch of beer with regular malt. You have a lot more control with all-grain, which for the homebrewer who is fussy about his hobby (and beer), is a huge advantage.

Fair enough, you might say, but a full all-grain set-up is a pricey commitment, so why not start with extract and then scale up if I want to tackle all-grain? This is usually the main reason people start with extract. But let's break it down. Homebrew starter kits—invariably assembled for extract brewing—are themselves relatively spendy (usually around $200), and most either end up unused in the basement or require major overhaul during the upgrade to regular, all-grain brewing. It's not actually a cheap way to brew your first five-gallon batch of beer; it's just cheaper than the equivalent all-grain set-up.

But why brew five gallons? That volume has become standardized, so everything is keyed toward making beer in five-gallon tatches. But there's no reason to start with that much beer. If you're willing to experiment with one-gallon batches, it changes everything. You can get into brewing for a relatively small up-front cost and see if it's for you. If you find the mashing onerous and want to go to extract brewing, at least you're making that call, and it's an informed decision.

Extract brewing is fine, but it's not the place you should start. In my next post, I'll explain how to do this easily and on the cheap. You can dip your toe in the wort with a $40 test batch, learn how the entire process works from the bottom up, and then decide what your next move should be.