Reusing Old Yeast

I found an unopened package of Wyeast Irish Ale in the back of the fridge. Could I realistically make it usable again by making a 1.5L starter with the package, put it on a stir plate for a day, let the yeast settle out, pour off the wort, and then make another starter using the new yeast? How many times would you have to do this to get the numbers back up?

Thanks

Steve

Yup, there are forum threads of people bring 1+ year old packages of yeast back from nearly nothing to a fully pitchable starter. Your method is a good way of going about it. There are some yeast calculators out there that will help you with the size of the starter or how many times you need to step it up based on how old the yeast is and the projected gravity of the wort you want to pitch it in to.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

It's a good one.