I have a new pack of Wyeast 3068, which I plan on using on a weizenbock recipe I have planned (a version of the recent "Hopfweizenbock" collab brew done by Mountain Goat and Brooklyn Brewery).
I'm only doing a small batch initially, to test out my recipe, so I want to split my yeast pack. I'm just wondering which is the better approach, do I;
1. Smack the pack, let it swell, then split the yeast across a couple of sanitised 50ml test tubes I have. Then make the required starter with one of those test tubes, keeping the other in the fridge until I next need it (which could be a few months).
or
2. Smack the pack, use the entire pack to make a starter of say twice the number of cells I need for this batch, then before I fridge the starter, give it a good shake and split across two sanitised containers. Let them settle out then decant the beer from one and pitch the slurry.
Does anyone think there'd be much difference in long term yeast health between these methods? Also, if I do option 2, should I keep the half that I don't pitch with the beer on it, or decant the beer off once it's settled, and just keep the slurry in the fridge until needed? Obviously I"ll make another starter with that before using it whenever.
I also plan to top-crop the weizenbock and store that yeast...so another question...given the weizenbock will be ~6.5% abv, is it ok to use the top-cropped yeast from that batch on a normal say 5.5% dunkel or hefe down the track?