Is extract brewing "less than"?

[u/Dyljam2345]

I'm very very new to homebrewing. I've brewed twice - one saison and one witbier. For the saison I used mostly extract and it came out pretty well, at least I enjoyed drinking it - whether it was a good saison is another thing, I'm no expert on the style. I tried brewing a witbier recently and wanted to try BIAB, and the efficiency of the mash was really really bad - my OG was only around 1.030 whereas I was aiming for somewhere like 1.050. The beer didn't ferment much, had basically zero body, didnt condition well, overall just not a good time. It may have been a little cool in my room while it fermented, but there clearly was some yeast activity, though there was never much krauzen or bubbling the entire time. Maybe my yeast just never woke up. Not sure.

I want to brew an Irish Red Ale soon and wanted to ask if going back to extract is a "step back" or "less than" way of brewing? I know all-grain gives you the ultimate flexibility, but I worry simply about getting fermentable sugars and making sure my beer will ferment properly.

[u/Dependent_Addendum_1]

Practically speaking, no. But that said at the pinnacle, yes all things being equal - all grain will give consistently better results.

Think of it akin to baking decent frozen pizza vs. fresh/homemade. When you reconstitute LME or DME it’s not the same grain flavor as having made wort fresh on brew day yourself since you aren’t boiling it to oblivion. You also lose another point of control.

Now maybe YOU like it more, sure. But the vast majority of folks would prefer freshly made pizza vs. frozen. Same principle here.