Yeast started decanting question

I have read 1000 posts on this subject but can't find the answer to my question. This is probably a stupid question anyway, so I apologize in advance. I made a starter for the first time. I plan on cold crashing it and then decanting the "beer" off the top. I am wondering, do I need to let the yeast warm up to room temp for a few hours before pitching the slurry into the wort? Is 1 or 2 hours of warming up after decanting enough or does it have to sit out at room temperature to warm up for many more hours? Does any of this matter? I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I figured I would throw this out there. As always, thanks for the help.

Still being somewhat new to brewing I believe the yeast you're pitching should be close to the temp of the wort you're going to pitch it in so as not to shock the yeast. I'm sure others will chime in and i'm hoping i'm at least partially correct.

jafo28 said:

Still being somewhat new to brewing I believe the yeast you're pitching should be close to the temp of the wort you're going to pitch it in so as not to shock the yeast. I'm sure others will chime in and i'm hoping i'm at least partially correct.

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This is correct. Pitch it when it is at the temp of the wort.

And also be sure not to decant all the liquid, as you will be needing a little to stir up the yeast.

Thanks guys, I should have added this to my question... I plan on decanting most of the liquid and then just adding some of my cooled wort so I can get it loose. Do you think 2/3 hours out of the fridge is long enough?

earwig said:

Thanks guys, I should have added this to my question... I plan on decanting most of the liquid and then just adding some of my cooled wort so I can get it loose. Do you think 2/3 hours out of the fridge is long enough?

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No. There will still be yeast in suspension. You need to chill at least overnight, in my opinion, to make sure that all of the yeast flocs out. Otherwise you are selecting for yeast that flocculate & fall out faster and removing those that stay suspended and consume sugars, which might lead to an underattenuated beer. It's probably not a huge concern, but why chance it, especially if you plan on reusing the yeast?

Fridge it overnight the night before you want to brew. Then take it out in the morning/whenever you start brewing and dump off all the starter except for a little bit that you can use to swirl up the yeast. Leave this out as you're brewing and by the time you're done it will definitely be room temperature and fine to pitch. No need to add cooled wort or anything.

earwig said:

Thanks guys, I should have added this to my question... I plan on decanting most of the liquid and then just adding some of my cooled wort so I can get it loose. Do you think 2/3 hours out of the fridge is long enough?

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That will be plenty of time.

There is some debate about whether you should pitch warm or cold yeast. There hasn't really been any good research as far as I know, but Clayton Cone at Danstar speculated that pitching cold yeast into 64F beer allows for better trehalose use.

Thanks for the replies everyone. This is my first starter and I plan on reusing it at least 4 times. I used WLP-300 and I'm going to use it in a Dunkleweizen next. After that I'll be keeping it in the fridge for a while until I can think of another beer to use it in.