Splitting a slant

I have a slant of White labs Cider yeast but I really only want to make 1 gallon batches. It doesn't seem like I need the whole slant so is there a way to make a starter make it pretty big and then just measure off portions for a gallon and then add more DME (I am assuming that would be what I would add to replenish the starter) and just keep it going like a sourdough starter. Is there a way to do that?

Also wondering how that yeast would taste in a mead. Maybe JAO? Any reason not to try it?

Thanks

The whole purpose of the slant is to have some long-term, stable storage for your yeast. You're right, you don't need the whole thing. You only need an inoculation loopful (not even that really...like 10µL). Use that to inoculate a 5mL culture of wort. Then step that up to 50mL, then 500mL. That way you can get many, many, many uses from your slant. Does that answer your question?

That does answer my question except for the stepping up. By that you mean just feeding it DME and water?

That's exactly what I mean.

I have found that I can take a single white labs vile and make 4 starts. I use some dme with some 22 Oz bottles. I split it up into 4 parts aND after culture cap 3. Use one and so on. I really use my yeast cakes 4 or 5 times and start over.