All-Grain Brewing vs. Extract Brewing: The Pros & Cons

As discussed in the article, “How to Brew Beer”, there are three main methods for brewing beer: extract, partial mash and all-grain. While there are a number of differences between the three, the main difference really comes down to how the base of the beer is created.

Extract and partial mash both incorporate the use of malt extract to form the base. This malt extract has been derived from grain but in its production the water content has been removed in order to enable improved preservation and transportation capabilities. This adds a convenience factor and provides the form necessary for the purposes of distribution and retail. All-grain brewing does not utilize pre-made concentrated sugars from the malt and instead forms the base solely from the grain in its original form.

It should be known that not one particular method is necessarily better than the other in every aspect — brewing is certainly not a “one-size-fits-all” hobby. Rather, one particular method may be better for a particular style of beer, one’s experience and/or budget level, or even one’s desired result for the beer.

Malt Extract Brewing

The large majority of the homebrewing community has experimented with extract and partial mash brewing at one point or another because of its accessibility. The initial investment is cheaper and the room for error is limited compared to all-grain brewing, making these methods the ideal choice for those getting their feet wet in homebrewing.

The Pros of Brewing with Malt Extract

1. Smaller Initial Investment Required

When brewing with malt extract you are not required to have a massive operation for the purposes of mashing down large amounts of grain. This means that the amount of equipment that you need to buy or even source from around your house is much smaller, which can in turn save your wallet.

An all-inclusive kit, such as the Gold Complete Beer Equipment Kit, is perfect for brewing with malt extract as the boil kettle, primary and secondary fermenters are ideal for a 5-gallon batch of beer, which is often the batch size for malt extract ingredient kits.

2. Less Room for Error

As many have said, brewing is part art and part science. Though, you can’t have the art without having the science first. In other words, one must understand how the whole brewing process works before getting creative in modifying parts of the process or ingredient list.

With extract brewing the process is simpler mainly because you do not have to mash grain to create the wort or sparge to get the remaining sugars from the grain. These processes require additional monitoring of pH, temperature and gravity, among others, which creates more opportunity to miss the mark or create a batch that is slightly off from the intended result.

The extract brewing process includes fewer steps with fewer “moving parts” to have to keep an eye on making it an easier process for those that may not be well-versed in the ways of brewing.

3. Time

In addition to having to monitor less closely, extract brewing completely skips the mashing step because the sugars that are needed have already been derived and concentrated from the grain by the company that produces the malt extract. This saves you a considerable amount of time in the end because most likely you’re only left with steeping a small amount of grain, the boil/hop addition(s) and the cool down.

The Cons of Brewing with Malt Extract

1. Cost of Ingredients

Aside from yeast, malt extract is the most expensive ingredient that you can buy to make beer. And yeast can be reclaimed and reused to create batch after batch whereas malt extract is a one-and-done deal.

So, if you brew often and perhaps enjoy brewing higher gravity beers that require a hefty malt bill then you’ll quickly find that the costs of malt extract add up very quickly.

2. Lack of Creative Control

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of using malt extract to create your beer is that it puts a limitation on the amount of control that you have in designing and creating the beer. There is an exceptionally wide range of malted grain for your choosing to brew with but the options when it comes to malt extract are far more limited. While this may not be a big deal to a novice brewer, it is a huge handicap for those that understand the full spectrum of aromas, colors, flavors and all the characteristics that the numerous types of grain can contribute to a beer.

When you use malt extract to build the base of your beer, you are then confined to the limits of that malt extract. The point here being that regardless of the other ingredients you add to the mix, the beer will ultimately be, to an extent, limited to the characteristics of the malt extract that you’re using. Think of it like an ice cream sundae. You can add all the toppings you want but no matter what, the sundae will only be as good as the ice cream used.

Now, this isn’t to say that malt extract is bad or tainted in some way — in fact, it’s more the opposite. These malt extracts are produced by professional grain companies that specialize in the highly refined process of converting grain into malt extract. They have it down to a science and have taken care of all of the hard work for you. But regardless of how well the process of converting grain to malt extract is carried out, it’s still the way that the grain company intended, which may not be exactly what you want. For novice to intermediate homebrewers this doesn’t make a difference but advanced brewers may want complete control over every aspect of the beer, which is where all-grain brewing comes into play.

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All-Grain Brewing

Brewing with only grain instead of incorporating malt extract is how most professional brewers make beer. This is the purest form of beermaking and the method by which you can most greatly influence the outcome of the beer.

The Pros of All-Grain Brewing

1. Complete Creative Control

Perhaps the greatest advantage that all-grain brewing provides over extract brewing is that you, the brewer, are in complete control of how the beer is made. It’s like baking a cake from scratch versus using a premade cake kit. You decide exactly what the beer is going to become; from color and aroma to flavor, mouthfeel and all the complexities in between.

Not being limited to the finite amount of malt offerings that can be found in extract form is a huge advantage that all-grain brewing has over brewing with extract. It is the reason that professional brewers and those very familiar with the beermaking process almost always choose to brew using only grain.

2. Cheaper Ingredients

Regardless of how you brew, ingredients are necessary for making beer. All-grain brewing and extract brewing use essentially the same ingredients: malt, hops and yeast.

Though, all-grain brewing requires a much greater amount of grain to achieve the necessary sugar levels that can be achieved using a highly concentrated malt extract. Because of this, one would be inclined to think that the larger amount of grain would cost more but in reality, grain is far cheaper in its whole form than in extract form which requires a lot of time and effort on the extract producer’s part.

For that time and effort, you pay a premium, making all-grain recipes more affordable. While savings may seem nominal at the single batch level, extrapolate those savings over hundreds of batches and you’re talking a lot of money saved that could be spent elsewhere.

The Cons of All-Grain Brewing

1. More Equipment = More Expensive

All-grain brewing is a more complex process that involves equipment that is not only larger in size but also in quantity. For example, where a 5-gallon pot would be sufficient for producing 5 gallons of beer when using extract, an all-grain batch of the same size would require a pot of at least 8 gallons in volume to account for the water that boils off and evaporates.

Additionally, you will need a large mash tun for the mash and dependent upon the particular methods you choose, a hot liquor tank for holding hot water for sparging.

Some methods of sparging require ball valve spigots for your kettle, mash tun and hot liquor tank, a sparge assembly including the sparge arm and hose, and a false bottom for assisting in separating the wort from the grain. Some other items that can greatly assist in the process are a kettle thermometer and sight gauge, a large immersion wort chiller and a yeast starter.

It’s also important to note that working with larger volumes of liquid requires higher levels of heat that your conventional stovetop range may not be able to produce. In this case, many homebrewers choose to use a propane burner, which is capable of producing the heat needed to bring a larger quantity of liquid to necessary temperatures. Keep in mind that these burners are intended for outdoor use only so their use can either limit your brew days to those where weather permits or force you to get creative in how you account for less-than-optimal conditions.

All of these additional items certainly add to the initial cost of brewing and also require more space, not only for when in use but also for when it all needs to be stored away. These reasons alone can be a turnoff to all-grain brewing, but for some — say, those in a small apartment — it simply makes it impossible.

2. Longer Process

All-grain brewing involves additional steps that are not necessary when brewing with extract such as mashing and sparging, which ultimately makes for a much longer process. Also, the greater amount of brewing equipment used in all-grain brewing means more equipment to clean up in the end. Dependent upon the recipe, an extract brew may take about three to four hours to complete from start to finish, whereas an all-grain brew will take around five to eight hours to complete — in many cases, about twice as long as its extract counterpart. To put things into perspective, an extract brew could be completed after you get home from work while an all-grain brew would need an entire day set aside.

While there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong when it comes to extract and all-grain brewing, there can be a better option for your needs. Your job as a homebrewer is to figure out which of the two is best suited to your needs and capabilities.

More Homebrewing Articles:

• 5 Beginner-Friendly Homebrew Styles
• 8 Helpful Homebrew Components You Should Own
• Homebrew Kits: How to Choose the Right Kit for You
• Beer Brewing Equipment: What You Need to Brew from Home