Starter vs. lots of purchased yeast

[jgalak]

I tend to use liquid yeast (White Labs and/or Wyeast), and am looking to get into some beers (lagers, high OG, etc.) that need more than one packet's worth.

Is a starter really necessary? Can I just pitch 2, 3, 4 packets of store-bought yeast? Other than cost, is there a downside to doing that?

 

[day_trippr]

Go nuts. The whole starter thing is about cost...

Cheers!

 

[olotti]

For those big beers you'll spend 20$ easy on dry packets as opposed to say 8-12$ for a liquid yeast then u need some dme for a starter so maybe 16$ tops for liquid yeast and dme to make a starter. I don't use a stirplate, just haven't bought one yet, and I just swirl my starter for a couple days then cold crash it and I've never had a prob achieving awesome attenuation.