[tygo]

I'm planning on brewing a 5 gallon batch of Scottish 70/- as a starter for a Wee Heavy.  My primary goal is to have a good yeast cake to pitch the biggun onto but I'm also planning on drinking the starter and am hoping its a decent beer on its own.  What's the best way of going about this?

Ferment the starter in the primary for two weeks then bottle?  If I go this route should I cold crash the beer to flocc the yeast out?  Ferment until primary is done then rack to a secondary?

[Hokerer]

When I've done a starter batch like you're talking about, I've just primaried the starter batch for a week or so and then racked it to secondary.  Then, once the biggun is chilled, pour it right into the primary with the starter yeast cake in the bottom.  You probably want to think about a blowoff setup as that biggun fermentation is most likely gonna take off like a rocket.

The other way I've done it is to go ahead and rack the starter to secondary and "wash" the yeast cake from the primary.  Depending on the size of the biggun, you may have enough washed yeast slurry for it (check Mr.Malty).  If it's not gonna be enough, you probably gotta stick with the first method.

[tygo]

Thanks.  I'll probably go with primary for a week or two then rack.  I don't think I'm going to try to wash it.  And I'll definitely be using a blowoff tube.

[Hokerer]

Thanks.  I'll probably go with primary for a week or two then rack.  I don't think I'm going to try to wash it.  And I'll definitely be using a blowoff tube.

I think that's your best bet considering how big a Wee Heavy is.  Also, since neither of those have a huge hop character, washing is much less important.