Starter ?

I have never decanted off the beer from my starters before. I decided I would do it this time. This decision was based largely in part from posts here.

After 12 hours in the fridge I was surprised how little yeast had dropped out. Maybe 5% of the total volume. Is this typical?

Cheers!!!

Just trying to visualize the situation, but it was probably active (not fully fermented out) when you put it in the fridge.

The times you definitely want to decant are, let's say it fermented at high temps. This would be indicated by a sickening odor not too much like sweet puke...definitely pour...

So I should be getting more than 5%? correct?

if so... thank god I have dry yeast

You need to be careful as some yeast take a while to drop and then if you decant to early you dumping the yeast to, ask me how I know. When I listened to Chris White from White labs on the brewing network he said there is no need to decant anything 2000ml or less it wont have any flavor attributes. I still decant after the starter has been in the fridge for several days. But if the wort is not crystal clear I would only decant down to where it started getting cloudy.

Roughly what % do you typically see?