[ckpash88]

So still lost kind of of

So if i was making a ale....
2 liter starter for simple starter or 1 litre with skaking or stir plate?

If i was making a Lager
8 liter simple starter or 4 liter with shaking or stir plate?

Now lets say i was making a 2 liter starter
If i am making the starter does the DME and water volume equal 2 liters or is it 2 liters of water plus the DME so i would be over 2 liters.

I apologize for the dumb question but i am still a little lost and websites are vague and everyones info is different and they all look at different variables.

It would be awesome if you could explain this to me like you would a young child lol

[nateo]

It would be awesome if you could explain this to me like you would a young child lol

So you start out with barley water. Barley water is food for yeast. Yeast eats barley water for dinner and grows big and strong. If you have one plate of dinner and lots of yeasts, they have to share the dinner so none of them gets enough food. If you have too many plates of dinner, they can't eat all of it before they get tired.

[tygo]

It would be awesome if you could explain this to me like you would a young child lol

So you start out with barley water. Barley water is food for yeast. Yeast eats barley water for dinner and grows big and strong. If you have one plate of dinner and lots of yeasts, they have to share the dinner so none of them gets enough food. If you have too many plates of dinner, they can't eat all of it before they get tired.

Well said  

ckpash just do what I advised earlier for this beer.

1)  Add 3.5 oz of DME to 1 qt water.  Boil it for a few minutes, chill, pitch the smack pack.  Let it ferment out.
2)  Put it in the fridge for 24-48 hours and let all the yeast settle out.  Then decant off the starter beer so you just have the yeast cake at the bottom.
3)  Cook up another batch of starter wort with 13 oz of DME in 4 qts water.  You want to end up with 4 qts of final volume give or take but you'll lose some volume during your short boil of the starter wort.
4)  Chill that down and add to the yeast cake.  Shake/swirl it up and then let that ferment out.  Repeat the chill/decant routine and then pitch to your beer.

Get this starter under your belt and then worry about figuring out the differences in results between intermittent shaking and a stir plate.  Don't worry too much about exact volumes and gravities this time around.  You're making a starter and you'll get a good pitch of yeast even if it's not exactly right.  As long as your sanitation practices are good you'll be well ahead of the game and will make good beer.  RDWHAHB.

[ckpash88]

Thanks that really helps and explains my question.

I cant really relax bc for the first time in 3 years i have no homebrew to drink...sad day for me but i am working on it.

One last question i am assuming that this suggestion was for a lager starter.

For a Ale starter can i make a 2 liter starter with no steps just add the yeast to a 2 liters of wort.

[tygo]

One last question i am assuming that this suggestion was for a lager starter.

For a Ale starter can i make a 2 liter starter with no steps just add the yeast to a 2 liters of wort.

Yes, that was for a lager starter.  For a 1.050 ale a 2L starter would probably be plenty.

[a10t2]

The result is that for the second step it's telling me I would need 1.48L of starter for the second step to achieve 350B cells.  That's obviously not doubling the volume for the second step.  I've tried a couple of other scenarios and got similar results.  What am I doing wrong?

There is no "wrong" since we're just talking estimates anyway, but for this situation I'd go with 1.0 L, then 2.2 L. Using "intermittent shaking" for both, the calculator says that ends up around 350B cells.