Pitch Rate and Growth for 10 gal. AG

Hey guys..Just a couple of questions about yeast growth. I am doing an American Brown Ale, 10 gallon batch with an O.G. of 1.054, respectively. I have one (1) activator pack of American Ale 1056 and need it to grow for a solid pitch rate. My question is do I just follow the standard and use a 1/2 gallon starter...wait 24 hours...and pitch into another 1/2 gallon? I will be using a stir plate. 1 g allon seems like alot of starter but idk.

Also,

I have looked a Wyeast pitch rate chart but im a little confused. It says the initial cell/ml is like 89, but the final is 14. Will the initial starter stress the yeast overnight? Does this sound right? ANY help would be awesome. Cheers!

here's a link to an easy to use yeast pitching calculator
http://www.yeastcalc.com
he's got some good reading material there too about starters

thanx...this one seems to be very user friendly.

I also use yeastcalc.com for figuring out my starter sizes. I like it better than the mr. malty site/tool since you can do up to three starter steps on the yeastcalc tool. The Wyeast tool is difficult since it doesn't allow you to set the starter sizes. It assumes the second step is the batch of beer you're making, which is not always the case.

I used the yeastcalc tool to get the three starter steps I needed to use 10 month old tubes (two of them) of WLP099 for the barleywine I'm fermenting. Got the cell count needed to pitch pretty easily. Also did it with just one 3L flask (increasing starter size each time). I'm often making two step starters when using older yeast. It's easier to do that, using less DME, than going for a single larger starter.

BTW, do you have a stirplate? That also allows you to make smaller starters that are finished far sooner. :rockin: