Stepping up starter with same volume?

I was planning on brewing on Sunday but life got in the way and I've had to hold off for a week until next Saturday. Happens to everyone right?

However, I already made my 2L starter with the planned brew-day on Sunday. So, with the extra week, I thought I'd try stepping up my starter. I only have a 2 liter flask or 64oz growlers without going all the way to a 5g carboy.

So, with that in mind, does it buy me anything to pitch the yeast from the first starter into another 2L starter? Or does making another starter only increase cell count by going to a larger volume?

I guess I'm asking if it buys me anything to make another 2L starter from my first 2L starter or do I need to make a bigger volume starter (like a gallon) to see any benefit?

Thanks!

I think you could cold crash, decant the liquid and add that same amount of new wort back to your 2L vessel, and then you'd be all stepped-up!

Disclaimer - I haven't done this, but it think it's a fairly common practice.

Cool, I'll do that tonight then. Can't hurt the yeast, right? :fro:

This is what I did. Definitely got more yeast from the second step even though it was made the same size as the first. Just give it fresh wort to consume.

Well I brewed up another 2L of starter wort last night and after decanting the starter "beer" off the first starter, hit the yeast cake with the new starter wort and woah, talk about active and a mess.

I guess I had a good healthy yeast cake because within 2 hours, it had blown right out the top of my 2L Erlenmeyer flash. By this morning, fermentation seems to be almost complete but I've lost 300ml from the flask.

So with such a short lag time, did the yeast really do much replicating or did the existing cells just get to work on the new sugars?