Check my starter

Northern Brewer General
1

I’m hoping to make several lagers this winter. The challenge is getting that first pitch going. I was thinking of stepping up a single vial starter twice in a 2000 ml flask on a stir plate over the course of a week. My other option would be to boil about a gallon of simple wort and make a starter in a carboy. Just curious if a “smaller” (2000 ml starter) stepped up a few times on a plate is better/worse than a larger starter simply allowed to ferment in a carboy?

Also does anyone think it’s critical to temp control a lager starter? If I have it on a plate there’s almost no way to keep it cold.

Thanks!

2

First, you don’t have to temp control the starter. Second, I use this site to calculate my steps to get my pitch counts right: http://www.yeastcalc.com/index.html

Using that site real quick, you can make up to 1.080 lager with 2 steps of 2L starters.