Should I do a 500 ml starter prior to moving to a 1000 ml starter?

Checked with Mr. Malty and I need a 1 Liter starter for my next brew. I have one vial of White labs yeast to use. Not sure if I can do a 1 L starter w/o hainving started at a 500 ml starter. Should I...

1) Do a 500 ml starter (using a stir plate) for 18-24 hours. Chill yeast, decant and pitch into a new 1000 ml starter for 18-24 hours.

2) Pitch the vial into a 1000 ml starter to start with (using a stir plate) and let this go for 36-48 hours?

Go directly to 1000 mL, unless you are using a well-expired tube or are harvesting from a bottle. In that case, I usually use 200 mL of 1.020 wort before stepping it up.

When doing a 1L starter, I normally just pitch straight into the 1L.

This is a fairly fresh tube of yeast (arrived earlier in the week.) I'll go ahead and pitch into 1 liter and see what is happening in 24 hours.

Thanks for the replies. Now I know to do something different if the yeast is older or is washed yeast from an older batch.

msa8967 said:

This is a fairly fresh tube of yeast (arrived earlier in the week.) I'll go ahead and pitch into 1 liter and see what is happening in 24 hours.

Thanks for the replies. Now I know to do something different if the yeast is older or is washed yeast from an older batch.

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Mr Malty accounts for age of your yeast. If it says 1L, you need 1L. Don't overthink this.

+1 on Mr Malty!

I still think that some of the Beer Programs slightly underpitch the yeast estimates. I go one tube directly into one litre w/stir plate for five gallon batches at 1.040 og

I prefer to make 14 gallons, so I use a 4 gallon batch as a starter, BUT I *DO* have to wait a little longer, anxiously, for it to kick off. I wouldn't sweat the small stuff.

These pouches used to say "good for 5 gallons". they still look the same, and work well enough, I don't know what caused the change in recommendation.

Yeast is blind, has no brain, can't think straight, and is lucky to land comfortably on the bottom of something, in a liquidy MUSH. AHhhhh, so you are what you EAT!

1 fresh tube directly into 2L (.5G growler) of 1.030. You won't propagate much yeast without the volume to do it in.