Yeast Starter Quantity

[Gaijin]

New brewer here with only 5 batches in. I am going to make the jump to yeast starters for my next brew and am a bit puzzled. The process seems simple but in terms of quantity I don't know what to go with. From what I can find it seems that it can get very confusing with beer style/batch size/yeast strain. On the other hand I have seen people say a 1 liter starter is plenty for 5gallons and it's as simple as that.

Not that I am trying to be lazy and obviously I want a quality end product, but just how complicated does one need to get? I'm worried if I start down the rabbit hole I may lose sight of the goal and lose interest. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[flars]

The people that say a one liter starter is enough for five gallons pray a lot. The size of your starter depends upon the estimated OG of your beer, whether it is a lager or ale, and the health of the yeast you plan to pitch.

Here are a few calculators to help you out, and also have good information on the sites.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/
http://www.homebrewdad.com/yeast_calculator.php
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast-tools.php

 

[hardrain]

I've actually just revisited this, since I'm upping my start game. Do this:

Compute your pitch rate with a pitch calculator (you'll need batch size and target OG), here's one but there are others:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

And, according to the (excellent) Brewing Elements / Yeast book, you starter outputs will look something like this assuming you inoculate the starter with 100 billion cells (ie -- pour one standard liquid pack of yeast in it; both WL and WY have 100 billion per package):

1 pack X 1L starter = 150 billion cells
1 pack x 2L starter = 200 billion cells
1 pack x 3L starter = 250 billion cells

...and that should get you close enough so long as your under 1.07 or so. If you try to go higher than that it gets more complicated and probably requires a second starter.