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I followed the instructions in Palmer's "How To Brew" (along with some modifications from a Jamil interview that I heard), for getting a yeast starter going. It is now sitting on my stir-plate, with a nice little krausen stitting on top - going on about 14hrs since pitching right now.

I would like to step up the starter to get a larger volume of yeast, but I'm not entirely clear on the proper process for this. Do I allow the krausen to fall back in, before chilling it and then adding more prepared wort? Or do I just toss it in the fridge at any point, to get the yeast to settle out?

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I think either way will work. What you want is the yeast to settle, and both methods you describe will do that. If you use the second one, the only difference is that maybe the yeast will have more nutrients when it "wakes up". Just make sure you don't make too much yeast because that is equally bad as less than required.

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    If your jar is big enough you don't have to decant, you can just add more wort. If not, chilling the yeast will let more settle out before you decant, but it takes longer than just pouring off the liquid when the krausen falls. You can do it either way.
    – bazin
    Mar 20 '10 at 23:51
  • When I step, I don't decant. I have a lot of different sized flasks. 50ml, 250ml, 500ml, 5000ml flasks.
    – Tim Weber
    Apr 7 '10 at 18:13

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