Decanting Questions

Alright so I made a starter Tuesday. Went on the stir plate for 48 hours. Crashed it in my chest freezer and now I want to decant it. Is it as simple as just pouring off the wort? What sanitation issues do I need be concerned with? I am worried that the yeast cake will be hard to pitch. Should I leave a little wort on to ease this issue? Prior to pitching should I let it warm up for three hours? Any incite that could be provided is great.

Yep. Just carefully dump off all but a little bit of the liquid. Then before you pitch, warm it back up and swirl it around to get it fluid again.

I'd say decant "slowly and deliberately". Yes, it will be easier to pitch if you leave a little liquid and if you let it warm after decanting. Since you're letting it warm, I assume you're pitching into an Ale. You should try to make it within 5 degrees or so of the wort you're pitching into and I would think it would get to within 5 F of ambient room temp before 3 hours. You can also add some boiled cooled water if you want to make it easier to pitch. Normal sanitary procedures apply. The less time you leave it uncovered the better. Probably wouldn't hurt to lightly spray the outside of the neck with Starsan after decanting, but don't spray directly into the vessel. Probably best to decant into something that's not going to splash back at you. Don't sneeze into it

I will say that the decanting method is generally harder, and many people don't do it if there's no good reason. But I think there are sometimes good reasons to decant. Like if your pitching a 3 or 4 L starter into 5 gallons of Lager wort ... do you want to risk affecting the flavor profile? Sometimes the toughest thing about decanting is really making sure you have good flocculation before decanting. If you don't you're losing some of the less flocculent yeast when you decant.

Thanks for the excellent responses. Should I put it back on the stir plate prior to pitching?

jagoffbrewer said:

Thanks for the excellent responses. Should I put it back on the stir plate prior to pitching?

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No reason to.