Decant or not-to-decant

What do you all do?? This is my 1st starter so I am looking for guidance.

Just made the starter with 1/2 cup DME and 2 cups water. I am brewing Saturday. Should I put the starter in the fridge Friday night and decant Saturday? Or just pitch the entire starter?

I have read about the chance of "off flavor" with starters. I wouldn't think 2 cups would effect 5 gallons. Guess it depends. Is there anyway to tell if things went array with the starter? What determines to decant or not? Preference?

Sorry for all the questions..... Still a Noob at some of this. Learning as I go.

I have read about the chance of "off flavor" with starters. I wouldn't think 2 cups would effect 5 gallons. Guess it depends. Is there anyway to tell if things went array with the starter? What determines to decant or not? Preference?

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I doubt that two cups would be enough to worry about.

I decant when I have made the starter far enough in advance that the yeast have completed fermentation and I have time to cool and settle it out.

I also decant when making a hugh starter, gallon or so, and volumes would be a problem or I am making a light beer such as a pilsner.

My personal preference for most beers I make is to make a 2000 ml starter and pitch the whole thing at high krausen.

depends on what your brewing really. If you have say a lighter beer like a blonde ale, then yes, I would definitely decant. But say if you have a imperial stout, then you're not going to notice.

I always try and decant, but thats just me. And since I use a stirplate to make my starters, the end product is highly oxidised from constantly drawing in air. I really dont want that in my beer so I decant as much as possible

If my starter is fermented out I go ahead and decant, if it is still active I pitch the whole thing.

I try not to add more than 500ml of starter liquid if at all possible. Since I typically make 2L starters, that means making the starter 4ish days in advance and letting it flocculate.

I've found I seldom need to chill the starter if I give it enough time to ferment and sit for a day or so following, I can just decant the liquid off immediatly before pitching while its still at room temperature.

-D

i made the same size starter a week or so ago but ended up working almost all weekend.too tired to brew on sunday night i put it in the fridge.i am off this weekend and WILL brew 2 batches at least on sat.should i feed a couple more cups of wort to my starter?

As you have seen from the above posts you could do it either way and still make great beer. If you do refrigerate make sure you allow your starter to warm up to your pitching temp before you toss it into your beer...