Newb Doing Starter w/ Questions

Hello everyone,

This is only my second batch I'm getting into and I'm tackling a Tripel clone with OG of about 1.093. Have two wyeast Trappist smack packs and am about ready to make the starter. Couple questions...

Should I throw to smack packs in one 2 L starter? Should I do one pack in one 2L starter and pitch the other pack straight from the bag? Should I start each pack separately and then combine at pitch? What would be best to get this monster rolling?

Sorry...this post was a duplicate post of the original above that was done on my mobile phone. I can't find the option to delete this post.

Try the calculator on mrmalty - http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

looks like it is saying that with an og of 1.093 with a stir plate and 2 packs you need 1 liter of starter and with 1 pack you would need 2.36 liters

Would 2 packs in 1 liter be too dense or take too long to start as opposed to 2 packs in 2 liters? My thinking is more wort/sugar available for more yeast and less competition for food source. Does it work like that?

I would do 1 pack in a 2l starter

I tried your numbers on the wyeast calculators and the numbers were a little different.

if you do 2 packs in 2 liters you will end up with ~ 24mil cells/ml
if you do 2 packs in 1 liter you will end up with ~ 18mil cells/ml

wyeast recommends "A general rule of thumb is to pitch one million cells per milliliter per degree plato."

you are at ~ 22 plato so you would want about 22 mil cells/ml

if your using a stir plate you can get to 22 mil cells using 1.5 liters and 2 smack packs.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_pitchrate.cfm

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_pitchrates.cfm

I think Mr Malty uses a default of 18mil cells which is why it said 1 liter.

You are probably better off making 2 liters and pitching when its at high krausen. As far as competition they are going to chew through everything in that starter pretty quick

Do you recommend cold crashing? Does it make a difference or should I pitch the entire starter at high krausen?

for a 2l starter put it in the fridge after the yeast is done then decant

So, I think it went well. Had a hard time telling if there was active fermentation/activity vs. particulate as the starter was stirring. Had it stirring for 18 hours and just placed it in the fridge. No krausen though. I wouldn't expect to see krausen with a stir plate would I?

So my next question is...I was planning on brewing about seven hours after placing the starter in the fridge. Is that enough time to flocculate or should I just wait till Saturday morning (24 hours). When is too soon? And is there a major difference between pouring the whole starter vs decanting? I've also heard some recommend a pint of wort to boost activity before pitching......

Just to finish off...

So I did a 1.5L starter with ~4.5oz LME and 2 packets of the Wyeast (3787) high gravity trappist via stir plate for 18h, cold crash in fridge for 24h, decant then warm/stir for 6h with about 50ml of wort prior to pitch. Three hours after pitching there was nothing. Nine hours after pitching there was pretty impressive activity. Sixteen hours after work, krausen was nearly at the airlock and I had to makeshift a blow off tube. >48 hours later and it's still churning something fierce. I have a feeling, all in all, it's been a successful starter with solid results.

Just started another starter for an experimental IIPA. Much thanks for the input!