I think you are over-thinking the process. Relax. Leave the beer in primary for 2 weeks. Rack onto berries for a week. Rack into tertiary for a week, then bottle or keg. That is the most basic instructions for fermentation. However, to help answer your question, over the years, as I have increased the size of my brewery and, mainly when I added temp control, I started tweaking my processes for each beer I make. With this one, I do something similar to this...about 12 days into primary fermentation, I will drop the temp down to compact the trub. About 2 days later, I then rack into a bucket on top of the berries. The berries are frozen, so the beer is going to remain at a very low temp for a few days, regardless of what you do to it prior to racking. Once I have racked onto the berries, I set my ferment fridge temp to about 65F. As the berries thaw and warm up, so does the beer. But I do not want it to get above ~68F. After about 6 days in secondary on berries, I will again lower the temp of the beer to try to compact any remaining gunk and seeds left in the beer. After a day or two, I will then rack into tertiary and bring it back up to no more than ~68F. After about 6 days in tertiary, I will cold crash for racking to the keg.
If you follow the basic instructions, you will make a great beer. As you become a more experienced brewer, you will find the things that work for you and will start to tweak your process to suit you. There are many things that I did years ago, that I don't do anymore, just because I don't feel that they are necessary any longer. It's just the things I have learned about my equipment and process over the years. Hope this helps!
everyone will give you a different answer, but since it is my recipe, i'm going to give you my thoughts. It is not necessary to make a starter with S-05. The directions will tell you to rehydrate. That being said, i make a starter with all yeast. I found that my fermentation starts faster and finishes dryer (lower FG). I make a 1500 ml starter using about 2 cups of DME. I have brewed this with rehydrated yeast and with the "just sprinkle it in" method. I prefer the starter and DME is cheap and it's fun to do!
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