Will you evaluate my 10gal yeast starter process? Is there anything wrong with it?

Keep in mind...this is for a 10GAL batch of beer. I'll be using a 2000mL flask and a stir plate. I'll be pitching Wyeast Activator Packs. Help me spot any holes or potential problems. Which would you do? Would you change anything?

OPTION 1
2 Days Before Brew Day
1. For a 2000ml yeast starter, dissolve 200g of DME in 2000ml of water.
2. Boil the water and DME in the flask for 15min to ensure sanitization of flask and wort & dissolution DME.
3. Quickly cool the solution down to 70F.
4. Take a refractometer reading. Gravity of the wort should between 1.030 and 1.040.
5. Pitch TWO PACKETS of yeast and place the starter on the stir plate in a location that the temperature is roughly the temperature you’ll be fermenting the wort.

1 Day Before Brew Day
1. After 24hrs remove the starter from the stir plate and place it in the refrigerator overnight to allow the yeast to settle. It will form a slurry in the bottom of the flask.

Brew Day
1. Pour or decant the used wort off the top of the slurry.
2. Allow the yeast to warm to room temperature. A small amount of 70F wort can be added to the slurry to make pitching easier.
3. The yeast starter is ready to be pitched into the wort.

OPTION 2:
3 Days Before Brew Day
1. For a 1300ml yeast starter, dissolve 130g of DME in 1300ml of water.
2. Boil the water and DME in the flask for 15min to ensure sanitization of flask and wort & dissolution DME.
3. Quickly cool the solution down to 70F.
4. Take a refractometer reading. Gravity of the wort should between 1.030 and 1.040.
5. Pitch ONE PACKET yeast and place the starter on the stir plate in a location that the temperature is roughly the temperature you’ll be fermenting the wort.

2 Days Before Brew Day
1. After 24hrs remove the starter from the stir plate and place it in the refrigerator for a few hours to allow the yeast to settle. It will form a slurry in the bottom of the flask.
2. Pour or decant the used wort off the top of the slurry.
3. Dissolve 100g of DME in 1000ml of water.
4. Boil the water and DME for 15min to ensure sanitization of flask and wort & dissolution DME.
5. Quickly cool the solution down to 70F.
6. Take a refractometer reading. Gravity of the wort should between 1.030 and 1.040.
7. Pour the wort into the flask with the yeast and place the starter on the stir plate in a location that the temperature is roughly the temperature you’ll be fermenting the wort.

1 Day Before Brew Day
1. After 24hrs remove the starter from the stir plate and place it in the refrigerator overnight to allow the yeast to settle. It will form a slurry in the bottom of the flask.

Brew Day
1. Pour or decant the used wort off the top of the slurry.
2. Allow the yeast to warm to room temperature. A small amount of 70F wort can be added to the slurry to make pitching easier.
3. The yeast starter is ready to be pitched into the wort.

I'm wondering if I could use ONE YEAST PACKET with OPTION 1? Do you think I would get enough fermentation with one packet of yeast in 2000mL of wort? Would I need to leave the solution on the stir plate a little longer? What kind of time frame would I be looking at if I did this (i.e. Day 1, 2, etc.)? Also, should I use a bit more wort for the step up in OPTION 2? Should I go up to 2000mL to get a bit more yeast fermentation? Thanks for taking the time to read through this. I want to make sure this is right?

What is the OG of the beer that you are making? You may be able to get away with 1 vial with option one, if the beer that you are brewing is normal or a smaller beer.
Check out Mr Malty.com for a yeast pitching calc. Its what I use for help.

Tony

The way I did it was to make two starters for the 10 gallon batch. When the first peaked I decanted a small amount to a prepped second flask, put the first in the frig and stir plated the second. It reached peak the day before brew day. All is going well in the two fermenters as of this a.m.

I'm going to be brewing mostly ales and wheat beers. I used Mr. Malty. Very helpful. This is my attempt to get my numbers up to the 354 billion cells I need w/o using TWO yeast packs. Mr. Malty says use TWO yeast packs with a 1100mL starter. Well I'm wondering, if I use a larger starter (2000mL) with ONE pack of yeast, will I get the numbers I need?

Good idea Wellshooter. Hadn't thought about that yet. I'd rather not buy a second flask if I don't have to, but I might. What do you decant with? What are the amounts of water & DME you use in each flask? Could you give me a break down of your steps kinda like what I did before? Thanks!

I use 2000 ml borosilicate Erlenmeyer flasks. I boil 1/2 cup xtra pale DME in 1500 ml of water. Chill in the sink and (I checked OG once and got 1.046) then pitch a slant from my frozen yeast bank, oxygenate just the airspace in the flask and put it on the stir plate. It usually takes 48 hours to reach peak.

For the second flask I don't boil until the first has peaked ( judged by color and slowing of the fluid motion). Then I simply poured a dose (maybe 2 ml) from the first to the second. The second only takes about 24-36 hours to reach peak. I store the first flask in a refrigerator until the second is ready. Then pull it out of the fridge and turn off the stir plate. Next day I brew. After I have the wort in the carboys I pour most of the beer off the flasks, match up temps as best as I can and pitch.

Not very scientific, and probably a smaller pitch than Mr Malty recommends, but much bigger than a single 'pitchable' pak.

This is probably slightly different from what you've asked, but maybe a good solution regardless. Make a lower gravity beer first and reuse the yeast - you'll notice under the repitching from slurry tab of Mr. Malty that you end up with WAY more yeast than you actually need, even for a high-gravity, 10-gallon batch.

Some people will disagree, but I like to err on the side of pitching too much (recently pitched nearly 500mL of slurry to a 5.25-gallon batch of 1.054 porter, for example). I haven't had any issues with off-flavors.