hows this starter look.

I made this starter with year old irish ale yeast from a stout I had made. I was doing this as an experiment to test how viable the yeast was. There was only a small thin line of white yeast in the mason jar before I pitched. It has been on the stir plate for 30 hours now and looks to me like she is taking off really well.

Im hoping to wash some of this yeast into a bigger batch, any idea how long I should let it go for before considering its done?

Looks like you're going to have plenty of yeast. After 30 hours on a stir plate and looking like that I'd have to say the growth phase is done so leaving it on there isn't going to do much to increase the cell count.

I'd say it's time to step it up if that's your plan.

Ok thanks for the input! I noticed where the neck tapers it has krausen residue. Now is the best way to step it up to place it in fridge and let the yeast settle or just let it settle at room temp which is around 73* and decant most the liquid off and apply fresh liquid?

This is my first time playing with a starter and can see why it seems to be a excellent way to promote good yeast cell growth.

The way I do it is to put it in the fridge and let most of the yeast drop out of suspension. Some yeasts will do it rather quick, some take their sweet time, but generally in 24-48 hours I have enough dropped out that I decant most of the liquid off and then pitch that in to another batch of starter until I get the (estimated) desired cell count.

I know some people will actually use a brewing bucket, add their large volume of starter wort to that, then dump in their first yeast starter as a way of stepping it up to really large volumes. I've seen some pictures of people who built a little rig so their bucket could sit over the stir plate.

But I find the crashing and re-pitching one or two times until you get a good amount of yeast has always worked well for me.

I took your advice and put it in the fridge, it has only been a few hours and there is already a nice white layer of yeast on the bottom. I can't believe how much yeast was reproduced from such a small amount of washed yeast. This will real save some money.