Does anyone have a good estimate on the minimum time needed to cold crash a yeast starter for decanting?
I’m brewing an I.P.A tomorrow with an O.G. of 1.070. I made a 2 quart starter today at noon and will pitch tomorrow around 2 p.m… The problem is the volume of the starter. I plan on racking 5.5 gallons to a 6.5 gallon carboy. It seems like a half gallon starter would take up a lot of precious head space. If i start cold crashing the starter at 8 a.m. that will give it six hours to stratify. Is this enough time?
Six hours most likely will not be long enough for all the yeast to begin dropping out even for a highly flocculant English style yeast. You might be able to decant some of the starter wort that looks like it is clearing. Other options would be to delay brewing or delay pitching the yeast.
1272 should be good to go after an overnight crash, at least in my experience. If I find myself in your situation I generally just store the wort cold overnight and pitch the next morning.
Unfortunately, he won’t be putting in to cold crashing by night since he just made the starter at noon. But it may be a good idea as stated above to cold crash it in the morning, then pitch later that night (or next morning) if you can.
The way I read it, he was brewing the day after the starter prep, so pitching the day after brewing would be a full day on the stir plate (or whatever) plus an overnight cold crash.