Starters

[NumbSkull]

These are half gallon jars. They should be just fine I think.

Mort

[Speyedr]

Good enough for government work.

One other point is that you should just loosely cover the jar so that the CO2 can escape. I use plastic wrap and a rubber band and it works well. Foil will also do the trick. If you seal the jar with the normal lid and ring you'll keep the CO2 in and the pressure can retard the yest growth...

...I think...

[Mr DNA]

Mort, I just pitched my Utility Amber Ale with a starter I made in a 1qt mason jar. I heated up 1cup (slightly less than 500ml) water and enough light DME to have a gravity of 1.040ish or so. I boiled it to sanitize, then capped it with sanitized foil and let it cool. A few hours later, I added the rehydrated dry yeast (although I just learned that you shouldn't make a starter with dry yeast-see mrmalty.com). The next day when my Ale wort was cool, I pitched the yeast. I had the fastest fermentation start I have yet had, seems pretty good so far. We'll see how it turns out in a couple of weeks. In the past I had only used one vial of White Labs yeast, and it always seemed to take a good solid day to get going. This batch was up and running in 6 hours. The next time I brew with the WL yeast I am going to try that again. In summary, you really don't need the fancy stir plates and erlenmeyer flasks, although they are pretty cool.