A 2 liter starter?

I don't know if this should go here, or in the newbie section. But I need some definition.

I generally do a starter with a pint of water and 1/2 cup of DME. Currently I'm doing a wee heavy, so I started early, popped the smack pack the night before, did the starter, let it go a few days, poured off the supernatent and added fresh starter for a few more days before I pitched. Fermenting like crazy, so all is good....

However, I keep hearing about large starters. I assume this means the whole thing (wort and all), not the measured amount of yeast sludge. Or does it?

And is there an advantage to making a whole lot of DME solution and making the starter in one go, instead of in stages? Other than time, of course. Which way would you get more yeast cells?

I think the general consensus is to step up the starter with lower gravity wort so as not to over stress the yeast with too high a gravity. That's why we make starters to begin with instead of just pitching 1 smack pack or vile.

If you have the time, I would chill the starter in the fridge and let the yeast settle. Then without disturbing the yeast too much, decant the "beer" off the top, then swirl and pitch the yeast into your wort.(after letting it warm to your wort temp)

As whitehause said, try to chill the starter and decant the beer off. With a 1L starter I pitch the whole thing, anything larger and I'll chill for 24 hours and decant.

When talking about starters, I always consider the volumes mentioned to be the starter wort volumes, but only the settled yeast 'sludge' is what I put into my fermenter.

And to be honest, my 2L starter is really about 1.6L to leave some room for fermentation in my 2L flask.