Using Extract kit yeast vs some external commercial dry yeast

Question

Is there any difference in quality, rather than the strain and flavor profile, between the kit yeasts coming with the kit and some external dry yeast?

Beers that i batched using external yeast (US-05, T-58, etc, I have tried quite a few types based on the style I brewed) feels to be coming out much better than the ones I brewed using kit yeast. Assuming the flavor profile of the kit yeast fits the beer style, do you think it really worths investing to the yeast? Or is that just a cognitive bias?

PS: My native language is not English, we call the extract + yeast combo sold commercially for easily making beer "kit", I am hoping it is used in English like this as well.

Answer 1

Usually the quality is not greatly different but the quantity is usually too low in my experience. Over here in the UK a 25l or 5Gal kit tends to come with 6g of yeast, where as I would often pitch 11-22g depending on the gravity.

It is probably the fact that pitching another yeast is pitching at far higher cell counts, leading to far cleaner fermentation.

Another thing is you never know how long the 'kit' yeast has been sat on a shelf out of the fridge, so may have degraded, more than a fresh pack of US-05, etc....

PS: Your terminology around Extract kit is correct :)

Answer 2

In my experience, those yeast that come with kits are about the same quality as other dry yeasts, I did not notice any difference in attenuation or lag time etc. I think most of the kit suppliers use the same yeast for all their kits, so usually a very neutral one-fits-all yeast.