lager starter temp vrs wort temp

Im sure I just need to dwahahb...........but here it is.....

When I do lagers I chill the wort down to 60 and then put in my temp controled fridge and tape the probe to the outside. I then take the starter out of the fridge and put it in the same fridge........a couple of hours later when the probe says its 45 degrees I decant the starter and pitch......I have heard that if the yeast and the wort are at diffrent temps then it will stress the yeast......im worried because the two volumes of liquid are diffrent they would be at diffrent temps if in the same fridge......the starter would be colder and the wort warmer.........what do you guys do?

If they are left in there long enough, both liquids will be the same temperature regardless of the volume. However, since you are pitching only a couple of hours after putting it in the fridge, you are probably right to assume that the starter has cooled down more than the wort.

Nevertheless, the yeast are fine. They can handle a pretty big temperature swing without much of a problem. Certainly a bigger swing than the 10-20 F you are subjecting them to.

Just to clarify, the probe is on/in the carboy? If so, you're definitely right that the starter is going to be colder than that. However, I think this is a good way to go because you generally always want to pitch yeast into a warmer wort. Same temp is fine too. Pitching them into a colder medium is where you start to have problems.