I brewed my first AG batch (heffeweizen) a few years ago and was so impressed with the improvement of quality over extract I never looked back.
I was thinking though that I have never brewed an extract dark beer before. Is there much difference between an extract brewed stout and an AG stout? If not I’ll make an extract stout for my next brew.
I myself would do all grain but extract kits from our host are realy good. If your pressed for time do extract. If you want more control over your beer and like doing all grain do all grain. both ways can produce amazing even award winning beers
Is there a difference? That depends on why kind of stout you are trying to make. Sweet stouts will come out pretty much the same, though it might be simpler to reliably get the same results with extract. Strong stouts might be easiest to do using a mash with extract added to boost the gravity. Dry stouts would be extremely difficult to do well with extract.
I have yet to make an AG stout or porter but have made two extract porters and I believe those are the best beers I’ve made to date. As rebuiltcellars says, darker beers with higher FG’s are going to be easier to make an excellent extract beer due to the lower fermentability of your wort.
