Yeast starter - is this right?

[Pole]

Just want to make sure I do this right. I'm going to make this Imperial Pumpkie Pie ale and it looks like I'll need to do my first starter, with a step-up at that. I've checked yeastcalc and mrmalty but I'd just like someone to confirm I follow the logic/process correctly.

I plan to do pitch the Wyeast vial into 1L of starter 1.030 wort Thursday night. Once it's done fermenting, I'll refrigerate overnight (Friday night), then decant Saturday and let it come back to room temp. I'll need to add another 1L of 1.030 wort, and when that's done fermenting, I should have ~350B cells. Refrigerate Sunday night, decant on Monday and warm up to pitching temp for brew day.

Sound good?

Edit to add: This will be sitting on a stir plate.

Thanks!

 

[chickypad]

Using those settings in yeastcalc with yeast packaged today I get 209B cells with first step and 257B after second step (1.030 starter, 1 L first step, 1 L second step, both with Kai's calculations for stir plate, right?). Will be a little or a lot less depending on the yeast package date.

 

[Pole]

Ah, that's it. I didn't change it to Kai's calc. How does a 1.2L, followed by a 1.2L look if I up the starter wort to 1.035?

Follow up question - will I have enough room in a 2L Erlenmeyer flask for that?

 

[chickypad]

I think you need about 300B cells for a 5 gallon batch, right? If you have a 2 L flask you should be able to get there in 1 step with 1.035-1.040 wort. I do 1.8-1.9 in my 2 L flasks routinely. Had a blowout once when the stir bar got thrown but otherwise it's usually fine.

 

[Pole]

Hmm. Beersmith thinks I need 320.8B cells, Yeastcalc thinks 333B. If the yeast is month old, a 1.9L starter gets me 328B cells. That's really the only reason I thought I needed a 2nd step.

ETA: Maybe I do 1.8L of 1.040 and call it a day with the 349B cells.

 

[chickypad]

Hmm. Beersmith thinks I need 320.8B cells, Yeastcalc thinks 333B. If the yeast is month old, a 1.9L starter gets me 328B cells. That's really the only reason I thought I needed a 2nd step.

I wasn't sure the exact size of your batch, but that is definitely close enough to not bother with a second step.

 

[Pole]

I wasn't sure the exact size of your batch, but that is definitely close enough to not bother with a second step.

Yeah, 5.5 gal batch. Thanks for the advice!