I was noticing that it costs about 6 dollars for a vial of yeast, and about 3.50 at my local brew store for enough DME to make a proper starter to double the cell count in a vial. So, it's either 9.50 for a vial of yeast and a starter, or 12 for two vials. Is there any advantage of making a starter over just pitching two vials?
I ask because I've been making starters for a while now, and have been having good success with them, but I brewed a Dubbel yesterday, and got lazy and just pitched two vials of WLP-530. I'd heard that this was just a crazy yeast and with my OG of 1.067, I expected two vials to just take off. But here it is, like, 15 hrs later, and no visible activity. With my starters I'm used to seeing activity in 6 hrs or less. I often get that kind of response from even making just a 1l starter on my stirplate, which according to what I've read, doesn't even produce much cell growth, if any, but it does "wake the yeast up." I am fermenting a little colder than normal (yay for the cooler weather letting me get me ferm temp down) at about 64 degrees as opposed to the 70 I usually get.