Pitch Whole Starter Into Wort?

I normally don't pitch the whole starter in my wort but I think I may have to this time and had some questions for the community.

I made a starter using White Labs California Ale yeast on Thursday. The starter took off really well and had a nice krausen on it. Went to throw it into the fridge last night to cold crash it for todays brew session and this morning (and still now) there is a krausen on the top and barely a yeast layer on the bottom. I plan to start brewing in about 2 hours or so and don't see the yeast settling out too much more in that time. Do you think pitching a 1 liter starter into a blonde ale would change the color or taste very much. It is a five gallon recipe and the starter was made with pale malt extract. Thanks for the help.

I like to decant as a rule, but I've pitched many a 1 liter starter over the years. It should likely be fine.

Sounds like you don't have much of a choice. What was the gravity of your starter wort? It sounds like it was above 1.040. I've been pretty happy with something in the low 1.030's. There isn't too much of a krausen to deal with and the yeast is settled out in 2 days.

I didn't take a gravity reading. I used 5 cups of water and 1 and 1/4 cups of DME. Just used the 2 cups of water to 1/2 cup of DME ratio that I always use.

Pitch it.

Well as luck would have it my plans have changed a little today and I don't think I am going to get to brew. I will brew tomorrow now and maybe the yeast will settle out a little more in the next 24 hours. If not oh well what can you do. The starter is similar to the blonde I will be making, or at least close enough.