Stepped Lager Starter

[son_of_a_kraut]

So for the lager I plan on brewing, Mr.Malty.com suggests 750 billioin yeast cells are needed for a 10 gallon batch. With a stir plate, it suggests 3 vials in about 4.5 liters of wort. 3 vials sets me back 21 bucks. Dropping to two vials and saving $7, requires a starter of 7.7 liters. This is bigger than my biggest flask (5 liters) that would work with my stir plate.

So, the obvious choice is to do a stepped starter. I’m struggling a bit with the math as I read the yeast book. Can someone tell me the best way to arrive at the right number of cells with either using 1 or 2 vials and the flasks that I have (1 liter, 2 liter, and 5 liter)? If it doesn’t work I’ll just bite the bullet and buy the three vials.

[shadetree]

Another option to the stepped starter is to run the numbers for a starter with just one vial, then make a small batch of “beer” with the correct volume in a fermenter at room temp so it’ll finish quickly, cold-crash for a couple of days, then divide the cake for the bigger batch. You could pull a small amount of the cake and store for later, too.

[mvsawyer]

I’ve started using this site for starters because it’s so easy to do steps. If you have a stir plate you could step the starter using a 2.5L first step and 3.5L second step with 1 vial and get to a 800B cells.

http://www.yeastcalc.com/index.html

[son_of_a_kraut]

[quote=“mvsawyer”]I’ve started using this site for starters because it’s so easy to do steps. If you have a stir plate you could step the starter using a 2.5L first step and 3.5L second step with 1 vial and get to a 800B cells.

http://www.yeastcalc.com/index.html[/quote]

Perfect. That’s just what I needed. Thanks.