Stepping up a starter question

[Rake_Rocko]

Hey all.
I’m using Homebrew dad yeast calculator because it has the overbuild function to harvest from starter. So this is for anyone who is familiar with that.

Mainly my scenario is this, on my first step, my starter volume is say 1 liter. The calculator says I need another step. So here’s where I get confused. If I put 2 liters for the “starter volume” on the “2nd starter step” line, is that saying that I add 2 liters of wort to make my total starter volume be 3 liters, or is it saying that I need to add 1 liter of wort to make it a total of 2 liters.

With that said, at the end it says that the amount to pitch should be 1.55 liters and the amount to harvest is 0.45 liters. So that only adds up to 2 liters obviously.. so I’m just not exactly sure what it’s wanting me to do with the steps. Thanks in advance!!

 

[Vale71]

It's saying that you need to decant your 1l starter, throw away the spent wort and then add 2l of fresh wort to the harvested yeast.

 

[Redpappy]

I may be wrong here, but I beleive you usually do steps when your flask is to small. For instance I had to do a 2L starter, but I only had a 1L flask. In order to get count I had to do a 1L starter, decant, then do another 1L starter to get my count...

if I’m understanding the scenario correctly, they are wanting you to do a 1L starter, decant, then do a 2L starter. Take .45L off the 2 L, in which it will still leave you with a good count for your brew.

 

[Rake_Rocko]

Ok thanks guys. I guess I need to take that in to account for when I start my starter.. I’ll have to start it a day earlier than planned to account for crash and decant. Thanks!

 

[IslandLizard]

Ok thanks guys. I guess I need to take that in to account for when I start my starter.. I’ll have to start it a day earlier than planned to account for crash and decant. Thanks!

Depending on the yeast strain, it may take a few days to completely crash. You can tell when it's done crashing when the starter beer on top is (mostly) clear, and you have a thick layer of creamy yeast on the bottom.

1 liter flasks are a bit small for pitchable starters (5 gallon batches), but good if you only have a small bit of slurry, or if you need to step up after (intentional) freezing.
A 2 liter flask is much more useful, it's a good investment. They run under $12-15 now.