My method, if ever get around to it, will be purchasing the strain on slant. I know the U.C. Davis accession number for the deposit that Jack made in the seventies as well as the original Wallerstein Labs accession number for the strain.
I'm not set up to plate from a slant right now. The ironic thing is that I had brought back a couple Red Tail Ales returning from a rare trip to California, but drank them in January about a week before I accidentally froze my small culture collection.
My interest in the yeast is in keeping New Albion Ale alive, sort of.
I was aware of the connection with Mendocino because of some extensive research I did on how the recipe for New Albion Ale evolved over time (contrary to McAuliffe's recounting to BYO magazine, it was not a simple 2-row and Cascade SMaSH). So I knew that McAuliffe sold the brewhouse, fermentors, culture, etc. to Hopland, which turned into Mendocino, that Mendocino in fact used that equipment in production until the mid-2000s, and that they continue to use the same strain.
What is relevant to culturing it is the fact that Mendocino doesn't bottle condition in the traditional sense. Rather, they filter the beer, force carbonate to just below the desired level of carbonation, and then add a tiny amount of primings and house culture in order to absorb O2 picked up during bottling.
I'm thinking it may take dregs from several bottles to be assured of a good culture if I propagate it straight up (I don't have the ability to plate it right now.)