Been reading this thread and I just gotta chime in on the topic.
I have to say I totally disagree with the people who say that Extract ("if the ingredients are fresh") can be just as good as All-Grain.
Imagine going to a Two Michelin Star Restaurant and going back to the kitchen and finding that all of the meat is in plastic, the vegetables are from cans and the bread is made from a quick mix box. So you ask the head chef, "Whats going on here? Where is the fresh food?", and he says "Not to worry!, everything we cook with here is fresh. Yes, it may come from a can or box but we have been guaranteed by our supplier that nothing is more than 1 month old."
This picture may seem rediculous but its no different than people saying malt extract can make as good a beer as all-grain.
Malt Extract beer is like eating from a can while All-Grain is eating food that was made from scratch.
Extract beer can never, ever be as fresh as an All-Grain beer. Fresh ingredients are key to anything we consume. Nobody argues that pellet hops are just as good as whole fresh hops. Yet people have this idea that a malt syrup from a can or bag can be just as good as making your own fresh extract and brewing with it right then and there.
Randy Mosher states in his book Radical Brewing:
"Malt extract has been largely stripped of aroma, which is why a pound of crystal malt or a mini-mash makes such a dramatic improvement."
Nuff said.