Is it worth cold crashing and decanting a WLP-300 starter for a hefeweizen?

[thehopbandit]

I will be brewing a hefeweizen this weekend using WLP-300 hefeweizen yeast. Hefeweizen yeast usually stay in suspension much longer and have low flocculation rates. I have never used WLP-300 before but, from what I hear, it is fairly consistent with this notion.

I will be making a 5 gallon batch using wheat LME. I only have extra light DME to use for the starter, so I will be doing a 1L starter with that.

With my past starters, I usually just dump the whole thing in if the starter volume is <5% of the batch volume. I have never decanted a starter before. However, I was consider trying it. But with a yeast like WLP-300, I'm assuming it will take much longer for the yeast to settle out anyways.

I have up to 2.5 days before brew day to make the starter.

So, would you attempt to decant this starter or just dump it all in? Will cold crashing a hefeweizen yeast in that amount of time even be worth it? What are your thoughts? What would you recommend?

 

[diS]

1L starter is not that much to pitch directly in fermentor, but if you want you can leave it on stirplate night before brewday, cold crash it and decant top of liquid (maybe half liter) and then pitch.
Actually leaving starter for about 12 hours to rest is good thing since yeast will build their glycogen reserves.

 

[thehopbandit]

1L starter is not that much to pitch directly in fermentor, but if you want you can leave it on stirplate night before brewday, cold crash it and decant top of liquid (maybe half liter) and then pitch.
Actually leaving starter for about 12 hours to rest is good thing since yeast will build their glycogen reserves.

Thanks. What is the general schedule for decanting a starter? I was considering letting it ferment for about 24 hours and then cold crashing it for 1-2 days. Is that fairly normal?

 

[diS]

No problem with that.
I cold crash for max 2 days but usually pitch it after 1 day. Lag times are mostly under 12 hrs.