First Yeast Starter.....What?

So I'm going to be brewing my first lager next weekend and have been doing some research on yeast starters. My OG is 1.059, so what I have come to the conclusion of is that I need to do a two part starter. If I do a 1.5mL starter then cool and decant, then another 1.5mL starter cool and decant, I think that will bring me to my roughly 450 cells needed. Any thoughts on this I'm very new to starters, infact this is my first one. Cheers!

 

What is the yeast strain? Do you have the date on the yeast packet? (i.e. the mfg date?)

 

Regardless of what I asked you....I dont think what you propose will get you to 450 billion cells.

Check out this yeast starter calculator:

http://yeastcalc.com/

Looks to me like you will need 3x 1.5 litre mixes...with intermittent shaking.

Now if you have a stir plate you would be ok with 2x 1.5 litre mixes

This assumes a 5.5 gal batch

 

I'll be using wyeast 2035, the date on it is Jan. 7th which should give me 79% viability? I also left out that I did buy a stir plate and a 2000mL flask.

 

If you have a 2000ml and stir plate then you can do a 2000ml starter. I'm assuming you have a beaker. The whirlpool from the stir plate will keep the krausen knocked down pretty good.

 

watch you inoculation rate when you add the 2nd 1.5L starter it'll be higher so not much growth will occur

 

So you think that just a single 2000mL starter on the stir plate will do? Two days then cool and decant?

 

No a single-step 2 liter starter won't be enough for your lager. Your 2-step plan in your OP is solid.

Assuming a 5.25 gallon batch, use a 2-step starter with 1.5 liters in each step. Grow the first-step, cool and decant. Add the slurry to the second 1.5 liter step, grow again, cool and decant or just pitch the whole thing. Personally I will always cool and decant pitching only the slurry. Use http://yeastcalc.com/ to compute your yeast needs.

 

no you would still need to step the starter up but you might as well do the biggest starter possible since you have to go thru the not so fun process of making the starter.

 

Thanks guys