pitching on my first lager

IMHO I would let the starter ferment longer than 48 hours if you plan on pitching just the cake but to answer the original question you could decant most of the starter liquid (if that makes you more comfortable) but leave enough to swirl around and get the yeast back into suspension and then pitch.

 

Related question: If one is to cold crash and discard the “spent wort” does a lager starter need to be kept at lager fermentation temps, or can it be kept at room temp so that it multiplies faster? I know that the warmer temps would make for an abundance of off flavors (which really wouldn’t matter if the starter is crashed and the yucky beer is thrown down the drain), but will it also stress the yeast and hinder it’s performance?



I haven’t worked with lager yeast yet—

 

If you are decanting, there's IMO no reason not to do lager yeast starters at room temp.

 

When you leave a little bit of wort (enought to be able to swirl into a slurry), the yeast will not dry out.

 

It won't.

No harm.

 

“More so is there any harm in just pitching in the yeast slurry directly after decanting vs adding new wort to the slurry and pitching that??”

The advantage of adding new wort shortly before pitching your yeast starter is that this will ‘wake up’ the cold crashed yeast prior to pitching the yeast into the fermenter. This would result in a slightly quicker start to fermentation. Just pitching the yeast slurry without this ‘waking up’ process will also work just fine. It is really up to you: do you want to conduct the extra step to ‘wake up’ your starter yeast cells? You will likely not notice any effects in the quality of the beer but maybe it would give you peace of mind?

Cheers!

 

In my practice (for all beers really, but I think the importance is greater with lagers): unless the starter is still pretty active (think 12-18 hours), I will refrigerate long-enough to crash most of the yeast to a cake/slurry. Then I will take it out 30 min-1 hour before I plan to pitch. Once I'm ready, I discard 80-90% of the starter beer and swirl with enough motion to dislodge all of the slurry, and then pitch. Simple as that.

I let it warm some before pitching (as I do to a certain degree with all starters) so that the yeast temp will be roughly within 10 degrees F of the wort (which for my lagers is anywhere from 42-48 degrees). I know that any temp jump greater than this might really shock the yeast.

BTW, I do all of my starters at room temp as well, regardless of style. It's the pitching temp that is critical (of both the yeast and the wort), IMO.