First Lager - Oktoberfest

I am making an Oktoberfest. I just wanted to verify my plan and get a couple opinions since it's my first lager. I plan to brew next weekend, so I am thinking about starters right now.

Starter
I have 2 - 1 liter flasks and 1 - 2 liter flask. The OG is about 1.058 and I have a double stir plate. From Mr. Malty, I can use a little less than a 2 liter starter if I have 2 vials, and a 4 liter starter if I have 1 vial.

-Can I make a 1 liter starter from 1 vial, then feed it 3 or so days later to make up a total of 2 liters? Or, should I just bite the bullet and buy 2 vials? Buy a second 2 liter flask and use 1 vial (might pay for itself eventually)?
-For ales, I usually just pitch the whole starter if it's under 2 liters. Can I do the same for this lager? If I end up going the 4 liter route, how long do you let it settle to decant?

Fermentation/Lagering
I am a bit confused on the temperatures. I have a temp controlled chest freezer for fermentation.

-Recipe calls for 50 degrees. For diacetyl rest, how much do I let it free rise? For how long?
-I was planning to crash it afterward to ~30 degrees then rack to keg to lager until late September/October. Should I secondary first? Also, should I plan to rack it to another keg before serving?
-Carbonate then lager or vise versa?

I hope that's not too confusing. Thanks for any help!

I would not chance it and get 2 vials if that is what mr malty recommends. Its critical to have enough yeast to pitch. You do want to decant the starter if possible, with a crisp lager it might be easier to taste the starter beer in there. When decanting starters I leave them in the fridge for 2-3 days at least to make sure they settle out completely as I want to preserve the most yeast possible when pitching. As far as the D-rest, try to pitch cool like maybe at 45 if your going to ferment at 50. Check the gravity and when you are about two thirds done with fermentation then let it free rise to around 65-70. There is some debate on the d-rest some say if you pitch enough yeast, pitch the yeast cool and ferment at the right temp its not even needed. I just did my first lager also an oktoberfest too and when the beer was a little over two thirds done I took a sample and didn't really taste any diacetyl but let it rise to d-rest temp anyway just to be sure it finished out completely.

I have done about seven lagers or so and have always done a d-rest. I always ferment a little under 50 and then when its a few points away from being at FG I take it out of the chamber and let it rise to around 65 and hold that for 2 days. At this point I rack to a secondary and lager then I put mine in the keg. I have never had any problems with my lagers and they come out very good with no diacetyl. In my opinion even if you cold crash for a day or so and then put in a keg to lager you would still want to rerack to another keg when lagering is done due to even further sedimentation. Not a bad thing though if you cant afford the used up fermenter during lagering and have an extra keg thats what I would do in that situation but I have an extra fermenter so I use that for lagering instead.

I wouldn't cold crash before lagering, I think part of the lagering process involves the yeast. I would ferment, D-rest as mentioned above, then transfer to keg and carbonate prior to lagering. If you can, drop the temp of the lagering chamber 5F a day. This is how I've done mine and they come out well.

I would use one vial, grow a 2L starter with it, then split that and feed both to double each again. I like to pitch these at full krausen, the yeast multiplication occurs prior to the fermentation so you'll have your cell count and they'll be active this way.

if you're comfortable with the sanitation, then pitch the yeast into a 1L starter for a few days, then add that to another liter of starter wort in the 2L container. That should give you something like 250% of the original yeast in the vial.

if you're like me and dont want to mess with the starter (dont usually like to buy DME, dont like the risk of sanitation issues, etc), then just pony up and grab a second vial. Most Okto's will do ok with a pair of vials.

as far as d-rests go, a lot depends on the yeast, but there's conflicting information out there. Doing a d-rest won't hurt anything, so i usually do it anyways.

so, my process is similar to whats been mentioned: Primary @ 50 until you're a few points over FG, then bring it out to 65-70 for a few days until @ FG. From there, you can either rack it to a secondary and drop the temp, or just let it sit on the yeast to allow some 'clean up time.' I havent noticed a significant difference either way, and typically let it go for about a month. There's no need to cold crash, before the secondary or after, because of the lagering during the secondary anyways.

Either way, the lagering phase should be basically at the low end of what the yeast will handle, or just below it. The point is to basically let the beer condition and mature. So, if your yeast will go down to 35 degrees, you're good basically all the way down to 30-32 degrees.

After the secondary, the beer should be racked again before serving, due to the sediment that will fall out in the secondary.

As far as carbonating before lagering goes, i bottle, so i can't comment. My guess would be to lager, then carbonate.

I brewed Jamil's Oktoberfest recently - it was my first lager.
I tapped the keg not long ago and the beer is excellent. I don't have a lot of lager experience, but here is my advice.

- big starter: mine was about 1.5 liter stepped up to 2.5 then 3.5 and certainly appeared adequate.

- pitch low: 48ish. It may take an extra 12 hours or so to get started but I think it should end up cleaner.

- d-rest: I did one, but after all my research I decided it is likely not necessary if you pitch enough yeast and pitch below fermentation temps.

- I fermented about 8 days at 50 then 2 days d-rest then two more weeks at 50 (dropping back to 50 over about 2 days). Then keg and drop the temp 2 degrees a day down to 34-35 and hold there for 6 weeks or more.

L

Thanks for the responses! I picked up yeast yesterday. I ended up with Wyeast 2633 (was planning on WLP820, but LHBS was out). I had actually never heard of it, so I'm still doing some research on it. I did spring for the 2 packs and I'll be doing a 2L starter from them (per Mr. Malty). Also, the packs are only 4 days old.

One more question for the starter, what temp? Mid to upper 50s? The yeast says it's good from 48-58 and I would think I want the upper end for a starter.

Palmer says that you can make the starter at room temps to speed up the process.this has worked well for me, as I try to chill and decant most of the liquid before pitching

Right, growing yeast for multiplication is different than fermenting beer. You can use room tmp and get faster growth. Since you'll have a lot of wort for a big starter, I would cold crash and decant most of it off.

I recently made my first lager/Oktoberfest. I may have underpitched mine but I did sequential 0.5L/1.5L starters with a single vial of 2124. Fermentation began well within 24 hours. After a week of fermentation at 50-54F, I nearly reached final gravity (as determined by a fast-ferment test that ended 3 days prior).

Diacetyl rest? At a week I took a sample and tried it. Aromas and flavor of diacetyl. I just decided to let it rest another week, where the temp rose a few degrees. Some may never get diacetyl but another 7 days cleaned it up easy. Besides the decoction, doing a lager has been a cakewalk (this time of year).

I'm doing an oktoberfest also. Did it last year too. I did a 1.5L starter at 70F, AFTER 24 HOURS I crashed it for 24 hours, then used that yeast for another 1.5L starter. cold crashed that, decanted about an hour before pitch.
As for fermentation...
Cool wort down to 48ish. Strap temp probe to side of fermenter and insulate. Set temp to 50. Let it go for 2 weeks. Next I bring temp up 2 degrees per day til 65.
Reck to secondary, set temp to 50, once its back to 50, start bringing it down 2 degrees per day to 35. Let it lager till september.
I then track to keg and carb. If your bottling, your going to have to add yeast.
Good luck, its an awesome style.