I’ve seen you post this before, but can’t recall if you do the same with lager yeasts?
Yes, though it's a weird thing. I only make 1-liter starters for lagers too. I aim to pitch to wort that's about 70-72 degrees (starter too), and then let it sit for at least six hours. I then start moving it down to 50 degrees (my standard lager fermenting temp) over the next day or so.
What that does is allow the starter to double again at the warmer temp, which is analogous to having a 2-liter starter. And with this approach, I'm oxygenating the starter wort, and trying to time it so I pitch about 17 hours or so after beginning the starter.
I'll consult my notes later and try to nail down specific temps and times and post them. As long as you don't stay too long at the warmer temps before cooling it down, you won't get the off-flavors you'd otherwise have.
And as long as I'm already violating convention with the starter, I do an accelerated fermentation schedule....when the wort is halfway attenuated, I begin to ramp up the temp, 4 degrees every 12 hours until I get to 66, where I hold it until fermentation is complete. This speeds things up significantly and there doesn't seem to be a downside to it. Caveat: I haven't tried this with every lager yeast there is, nor with every type of lager there is. I've done it successfully with Czech Pilsner yeast and with Mexican Lager yeast. YMMV, of course.
EDIT: Here's one temp schedule; had the wort down to 67 when I pitched.
3:30pm Sun 67 degrees, pitch yeast (entire starter in)
11:30pm Sun drop to 58 degrees
6:30am Mon drop to 50 degrees
9:00pm Tues raise to 54 degrees (halfway attenuated; TILT hydrometer)
8:00am Wed raise to 58 degrees
8:00pm Wed raise to 62 degrees
8:00am Thu raise to 66 degrees
7:00am Sat drop to 60 degrees (gravity samples stable 1.054 --> 1.012)
7:00pm Sat drop to 54 degrees
7:00am Sun drop to 48 degrees
4:30pm Sun drop to 42 degrees (I'm impatient here
)
7:45am Mon drop to 38 degrees
6:30pm Tue KEGGED
That was my dark lager, using WLP940 Mexican Yeast. Yeah, a lager, grain to keg in 9 days.
Weird. But it works for me.