Newbie yeast starter paranoia

[Mskin]

I'm in the midst of my first yeast starter. There seems to be so many different tutorials and strategies... i chose a method that calls for boiling 1 cup DME with 1500ml water and mixing it with a smack pack (at 80 +/- degrees). newbie issue number one... I only have a 1l flask, so i filled the flask to 1000ml and dumped the remaining wort. I havent purchased a stir plate yet and mixing this thing to aerate is out of the question - i'd have a mess. I placed it in my oven last night at - permitting it remains off, i think it provides the most stable temperature in my house. its milky tonight, with some sediment - i think that's a good thing. am I going to get the "growth" i need for a 1.078 og beer? I'm considering putting it in the refrigerator tomorrow morning to let the yeast drop, decanting after work, then adding maybe another 600-800 ml of DME mix to build the starter a bit more. its thursday evening. brew day is sunday at 4:00pm. should i just let this be until sunday? should i refrigerate it at some point, or should i employ my decant method and pitch with a smaller amout of DME so i can shake this baby up a bit? or just stop worrying altogether?

 

[Double_D]

For years I did a quart starter and just let it sit either in my fermenter or in a cupboard. I don't think the oven is necessary and in fact, it scares me a little. The 1.5 liter would be ideal as would a stir plate. Depending on your yeast, batch size, and style of beer, technically you still might need two packs in a starter. -- that is the bad news.

Realistically, you're still going to make beer. Rdwhahb. By almost all accounts you'll be fine even if you technically under pitched....

24 - 36 hours is generally recommended for a starter to ferment and then you can cold crash and decant the spent wort and pitch after your slurry comes up to fermentation temp. Before I had my stir plate I just pitched the whole active starter after 18 hours or so but that was in 10 gallon batches with 2 packs in a guart --almost guaranteed to be under pitched...it still made good beer.

My point is, you'll be fine and your beer will get better. Don't worry about it so much. It's still going to ferment.

 

[Mskin]

I crash cooled it last night - the yeast dropped, i decanted and repitched about 800ml of wort using 1/2 cup of DME at 8:00 am today. Its currently going bananas - frothing, etc.... I plan on brewinig tomorrow, probably pitch at about 8:00pm.

Should i let this thing continue to go, or should i crash it again and revive tomorrow? Im not sure what the end end result is going to be either way.

thanks...