Temp to Pitch lager yeast

Going to be doing a Pilsner Brew this weekend and will be making a starter for a white labs wl800 Pilsner yeast,I will be fermenting this at 50-55F. This will be my first lager type brew so I was wandering , Do I need to cool my yeast starter and wort down to 50-55F before pitching this yeast. Or should I be having the yeast starter at room temp, and wort at room temp 72f then pitching the yeast starter and then cooling after pitch to 50-55F?

Thanks for the help in advance!

I cool the wort down as close to 40F as I can then decant/pitch the starter from the fridge. Let the temp naturally raise up to 50F and let your temp controller do the rest of the work. It worked pretty well as I had high krausen in less than 12 hours.

+1, I do something similar. Let my wort chill to a couple of degrees lower than my fermentation temp, pitch a decanted starter straight from the fridge.

smizak said:

+1, I do something similar. Let my wort chill to a couple of degrees lower than my fermentation temp, pitch a decanted starter straight from the fridge.

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Yep. A huge yeast starter at 40 degrees pitched into 45 degree wort is awesome! I usually am not able to cool my wort below 50, though, so I usually pitch a 48 degree yeast starter into 50 degree wort.

Thanks All!
With your advise I am going to try to get the wort down to 45-50 some degrees and pitcher cold. Thanks so much, I let you know how it goes!

schweaty said:

I cool the wort down as close to 40F as I can then decant/pitch the starter from the fridge. Let the temp naturally raise up to 50F and let your temp controller do the rest of the work. It worked pretty well as I had high krausen in less than 12 hours.

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I love your style, dude............