Yeast Starter using Stir plate advice needed

[Fastforwardx2]

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. First off I am currently I am in Japan and it isn't as easy to get yeast here as it is in the States. So I started a yeast starter on April 21, 2015 of White Labs California Ale Yeast WPL001 with a best use date of October 23, 2014. I boiled 1300 mL of water and 1 cup of Briess CPW Pilsen Light DME for 15 minutes and ended up with 1100 mL of wort and added to my 2 L flask. After 24 hours on the stir plate I saw no signs of typical fermentation but since this was my first stir plate starter I thought it must be different and put it in my fridge to cold crash for 24 hours. There was such a small amount of a "yeast cake" that I decided to do a 2nd starter since it was old yeast. For this second starter I boiled 1800 mL of water, 186 grams of the DME and a pinch of Fermaid K for 15 minutes. After I added to the flask with the "yeast cake" (I poured off most of the old wort) I tested the old wort and had a Gravity of 1.046 and realized that the yeast probably had not eaten any of the sugar in the wort. So I pitched a vial of WPL001 that I had from a non stir plate starter that I had made on July 11, 2014. I saw small amounts of foam and then a krauzen which died down. This starter was on the stir plate for 36 hours and cold crash for 40 hours. I tested the starter wort/beer and it had a gravity of 1.020. I did a 3rd starter of 1800 mL of water, 189 grams DME and pinch of Fermaid K. So I am looking for advice for current yeast or if I am in this situation again any advice for the process I took.

 

[eddiewould]

Just to confrim, you're cooling your starter down to below 30c before pitching your yeast to it? I find about 20c (room temperature) is good. Too hot temperature will kill the yeast.

Also if your yeast was refridgerated, you should allow it to warm up slowly to room temperature before pitching.

Basically, you want the wort and yeast at around room temperature before you combine them.

 

[Fastforwardx2]

Yes I cool the starter down by placing the pot and sanitized lid in a ice bath for 30 to 40 min. I also take the yeast out of the fridge before I start the starter so it has 2-3 hours to warm up before pitching.

On this latest starter within 4 hours I had an obvious high krauzen and at the 13 hour mark it has gone down but there still appears to be yeast activity. So far this starter is looking way better than the last 2.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Sounds solid. Saccharomyces Cerevisiae optimal propagation temperature is just over 30°C. At about 40°C yeast begins dying faster than it grows. You can estimate how many cells you have by measuring the settled yeast. When cultured with DME it's about 2 billion cells per ml.