Stepping up a starter

I plan on brewing Saturday. I am using wlp565 saison yeast.
On Monday Night i got my starter going. I plan on stepping it up two times, once on Tuesday and once Wednesday. Thursday night after it has fermented out, I will place it in the fridge so the yeast can flocculate. On Saturday I will decant all the liquid and warm to room temp to pitch.

A couple questions:
When stepping up, should I decant all the liquid first? Or just add the new wort to the whole starter.

Anyone have issues/problems putting the starter in the fridge to help flocculate the yeast?

Thanks.

If you have room in your container, I would just add the new aerated wort to the existing starter. I do the fridge all the time with no problems.

Is the yeast old or something? Why not just make the big starter to start with? You should be able to make up to a about a 3 gallon batch of starter at 1040 and pitch a fresh vial into it without under pitching. Should leave you with a pretty good pitch of yeast there!

JSomps6 said:

Is the yeast old or something? Why not just make the big starter to start with? You should be able to make up to a about a 3 gallon batch of starter at 1040 and pitch a fresh vial into it without under pitching. Should leave you with a pretty good pitch of yeast there!

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I only have a one gallon container for the starter.

One other issue tho, I got home from work today and no activity on the starter. Not one bubble on top of the wort. It's a day after adding the yeast. I'm using wlp565 if that matters.

Should I let it go or add more wort? I don't have anymore fresh yeast on hand :-(

medusa1066 said:

If you have room in your container, I would just add the new aerated wort to the existing starter. I do the fridge all the time with no problems.

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this is exactly the way to go. I always start with a small start of lower OG to verify the health of the yeast and get them gently started. I then add more and more 1.040 wort to the starter until I get the yeast volume I desire.