Yeast starter crashed in freezer - big mistake or safe?

[ILMSTMF]

TL; DR version. Stirred for 4.5 days straight. Put in freezer for 2 hours to crash. Took out to warm up before decant and pitch. Did this drastic temp change "shock" the yeast? Hurt it?

More details.
I wound up with like 6 gallons in bucket. Had originally planned to pitch 1.6L of whole starter but now there is way less headspace then usual. So I figured I'd crash, bring to pitching temp with flask on counter, decant, and pitch just the yeast.

The issues here are
headspace is already tight.
OG might have fell short of target. 1060 actual vs 1064 target. So what? I could pitch whole starter and get some gravity points. But... headspace.

Bucket in FC now cooling to pitching temp. Probably going to pitch in a few hours so any help before I do is appreciated!

 

[GPP33]

It’s too late to crash even in a freezer, use a blow off tube!

 

[ILMSTMF]

On the contrary, the flask was only in the freezer for two hours but it seems to have helped the yeast drop out to a layer on the bottom. I'm amazed!

In any case, should I swirl it back up and pitch all? YES, I'll be using blow off for first few days until she settles down.

ALSO! I have Fermcap-S, should I add to fermenter?!

Thanks @GPP33 !

 

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

I would pitch the whole starter and use a blowoff tube. A lot of your yeast has settled out, but there will still be a tremendous amount in suspension and you risk under pitching.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Ok F**k it. When the wort hits pitching temp, I'll swirl up the starter and pitch the whole damn thing. Thanks !

 

[ILMSTMF]

Update - lost patience and pitched the whole 1.6L when wort hit 77F. Was targeting 70F. From pitch time, took 12 hours to drop to 70F. 24 hours from pitch and the "exhaust glass" is bubbling rapidly! No sludge in it, hope it stays that way. Gotta be 2 inches of headspace, tops. Wondering how I'm going to package all of this into a 5 gallon keg... lol

Yeast is WLP644, by the way.