Lager starters, how much?

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HootHootHoot

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Making my first lager. How big should a starter be for a 5 gal batch? A lot of people seem to make starters at 1L, but calculations would say I need approx 3.2 liters so basically almost a gallon. Need to know so I can either buy a flask or 1gal carboy.

I assume I would decant the wort off if I were a gallon. That being the case, how long before I brew should I get the starter going, four days good?

Thanks!
 
Well you answered most of your own questions... Although a week would be better. Some lager strains can take 2 days to start fermenting the starter, then you're going to want a full day to crash the starter. I like to do a week.
 
Read the info on mrmalty.com and yeastcalc.com. How big a starter depends on many things. Some are; age of the yeast, gravity of the beer, how you are fermenting your starter.

Yeastcalc.com gives good information on making a step starter so that each step is smaller. If you made a lager starter in one batch it would be very big.
 
Here is a great post on how to calculate proper pitch rates.

I typically make my starters 2-3days before so i can cold crash it the night before brewing.
then remove it from the fridge the day of brewing and allow it to warm up to pitching temp.
decant then pitch.
 

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