How do you 1 gallon guys manage your yeast?

[kombat]

I've been brewing 5 and 10 gallon batches for a year and a half now, and I recently bought some equipment to try my hand at a few 1 gallon batches, just to try out new recipes on a small scale. I'm a little intimidated, but I think I've got most of the logistics of it figured out, with one exception: yeast.

It seems that pretty much all yeast is packaged to be used in 5 gallon batches. So what do you 1 gallon guys do for yeast? I guess if I'm using dry yeast like US-05, I could open the packet, just take what I need, then tape it shut again. While I'm sure that's not the ideal way to do it, I guess it would work. But what about beers that require specialty yeast that's only available in liquid form? Do you make a starter as if you were doing a 5 gallon batch, then just take 1/5th of the yeast slurry and ... what? Put the rest in a jar and stick it in the fridge? Do you just take 1/5th of the original package? And make a small starter?

I guess I'm just confused as to how to do this without wasting expensive yeast.

 

[kombat]

Nobody???

 

[Safa]

I've only ever used cheap dry yeast for my 1 gal batches. And even then I usually get two or three going at once to so that I can use a whole packet of yeast.

I kept half an s-05 for a few months in the fridge once, when I got around to pitching it, nothing happened. So I'm not trying that again.

Your idea for the starter and slurry is a good one, just be sure to store the remaining slurry properly.