Starters - Pitch whole, or crash & decant?

[Visor]

@ynotbrusum

The shaken not stirred approach has gained widespread acceptance, for sure.  Alternatively, you can time your brewing for harvest and repitch on the brew day.  That has been my approach for the last couple years, averaging 7-8 generations per strain.

As I often note (drone on about,) storing yeast for a period before pitching or repitching is not a real problem either for us, if scheduling brewdays to match propagation or harvest is difficult.  The enemies of yeast in storage are hydrostatic pressure and heat buildup in the yeast mass generated by its own metabolism.  These are significant concerns in the cone of a commercial fermenter or even in a large brink.  In a quart jar in your fridge, or even on the bottom of a homebrew sized fermenter,  not so much.  One of many advantages we have over the pros.

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I have become hypersensitive to autolysis, can’t detect diacetyl or DMS if I’m swimming in them but two dead decomposing yeasties in a gallon of beer and I’ll notice them. That being said, depending on the yeast strain and batch specifics, I’ve detected autolysis in harvested yeast stored under beer in a closed jar in the fridge in as little as 10 days, though some harvests are still fine after 3 or 4 weeks.

[Ronnal]

As a general rule, I crash my starter, but I do it to taste the beer before I pitch. It gives me an idea that the yreast is healthy and produces flavours and aromas I am happy with. If I am happy with it, I pitch the hole thing in.