What Size Starter?

I'm ordering a Wyeast Scottish ale yeast 1728 smack pack from Austin Homebrew. I'm in southern California. Both places are hot as hell (100s), and the trip for the yeast to get here will probably be about three days. I'll order an icepack, but I plan to make a starter to check yeast viability and for peace of mind.

I will only be making two gallons of beer at approximately 1.048 OG. So, despite the date on the yeast, just from the heat during the trip I'm sure a lot of the yeast will die. I'm wondering if I still need to make a full liter starter since I'm only making two gallons of beer, or should I do less? What size do you all recommend? Would 250 ml of water and 25 gm of DME be too small of a starter?

The Mr. Malty calculator isn't taking into account that the yeast will probably not be as viable just from the trip despite whether or not it's very fresh yeast.

I am not sure it is technically possible to over-pitch on a homebrew scale. But if you assume a 75% viability, Mr Malty says you need a liter of starter so that is what I would do.

Use fast shipping and another ice pack. IF I was to order liquid yeast (I get mine from a LHBS) I would do overnight shipping and make sure it survived the trip.

Did the pack expand fast?

I made a starter with a wyeast pack from AHS this morning. It expanded in a mater of hours yesterday it took off fine today. I ordered two ice packs and it was comparatively cool when it arrived. It took three days to get here.

For two gallons I would have just pitched the pack and not bothered with a starter. A one liter starter will double the viable yeast.

I have noticed on Mr. Malty that it never suggests less than a liter for anything. What I like to do is put in the whole five gallons (20 liters) and see what I get, then multiply that by .4 (which gives me 8 liters) to see what I get. Assuming 75% viability, for 20 liters (I prefer metric) that would be a 2.11 liter starter, so 844 ml for 40% of that. If it's 60% viability, then it suggests 2.83 liters or 1.13 liters for my purposes. If you go below 60% viability, it suggests more than one package in addiiton to the starter.

The problem is that we won't know the viability because the heat could change a lot of things, or the package may not get very hot. Somehow I was thinking it would get pretty darn hot in the UPS truck.

But I think just for fun it wouldn't hurt anything to make a 1 liter starter and then decant a lot of the liquid away. It would be good practice for me to make starters, and I'd get a nice fast start probably that way anyway. I'd rather have a quicker start than slow in this hot climate. I will also be fermenting around 70 or so because that's as low as I can get the carboy with my methods, so I can't have wort sitting around during a long lag period.

I just found this information that is extremely helpful, and I will follow the directions outlined by White Labs:

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_starters.html

If the yeast arrives and the pack itself is not super hot, I'll make the smallest starter of one pint. If the package is very warm, I'll just make the two-pint starter. I'll keep everything simple that way.