building up a starter

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mdf191

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I have been reading the various threads on starters and most of you suggest making a starter by begining with around a 1000 ml- 2000ml of water...add around 3/4 cup dme...boil...cool...add yeast....pitch into 5 gallon batch in a day or two.

I was also looking at what Palmer said about starters and he talks about building them up. Starting with less water and Dme, and adding second or even third sterilized wort to the fermentation over time. I am guessing the advantage to this is similar to the reason we make a starter in the first place...to give the yeast less to work with, while it gains strength. But I am thinking for such a small batch it wouldn't matter much.

Is one better then the other? Obviously building upon a smaller starting batch would take more work and add more risk of contamination. So that approach does not add many benefits I would be inclined to go bigger single wort.
 
I say just do it. I just made my first starter, and I did 5 pints with 1.5 cups (.5 lb) of DME. That way I could save some of the yeast for another batch. I think I'll pitch 2 pints of it. The starter fermented through in about 2-3 days like I expected it to. Everything seems to be healthy and OK.
 
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