Can a starter be to big?

M planning on making a two liter starter but is that the right size. One vial of white labs Wlp028 for a almond brown ale 5.5 gallon

What are you brewing?

mrrshotshot said:

http://yeastcalc.com/

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^This... The calculator will tell you how big of starter you need depending on the age of your yeast and OG of your wort.

Sure it can, but that is mostly when people pitch on an a yeast cake from their last batch. The ABV has a lot to do with how much yeast you need. The only problem with knowing exactly how much your pitching is you'ed need to do a cell count (I don't have a microscope) So I try to over pitch a little. If I'm making a 6 gallon batch of 8%ABV IPA; I will bump up the starter 2 times for a total of 4 quarts of starter. This is a SWAG at the correct amount of yeast.
Not knowing your ABV ( lets say your doing a 6-8%ABV) I'd say crash your starter once or twice using a total of 4 quarts of starter. The second crash is optional. If your doing a something light like a 4% ABV your fine with with just 2 quarts of starter. I know some beer nerd needs a change of paints, because I'm not exact on my pitching rates.

What is the viability of most yeast is it usually around the same amount like 10% one calculator said wanted to plug 10% into everything

I would think that 75% would be a safe #

benzy4010 said:

What is the viability of most yeast is it usually around the same amount like 10% one calculator said wanted to plug 10% into everything

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I'm confused at what the question is. Viability of liquid yeast is based on the age. The day of manufacturing the yeast is at 100% viability. Every day after that viability decreases.

benzy4010 said:

M planning on making a two liter starter but is that the right size. One vial of white labs Wlp028 for a almond brown ale 5.5 gallon

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As others have said go to Yeastcalc.

The answer depends on information you have not provided like date on the vial and OG of the beer.