Cultivate yeast from secondary sample?

My brew buddy just got good news (he’s going to be a dad) and bad news (his car is dead). A couple months ago, when I found out my wife was pregnant, I started on a batch designed to go 9 months from brew day to drinking, and he wants to do the same. Only problem is he can’t make it to the brew shop in time to start the yeast starter.

I happen to have a batch I just sent to secondary last night that uses the same yeast. It even kicked up a bit on transfer, so I know there’s some healthy yeast in there. I’m thinking I pull a sample tonight, start a half-size starter tonight, add the rest tomorrow, and it should be good to pitch when we brew on Saturday.

Anyone have any advice on adding/removing steps to make sure this works or should I just find a way to get to the brew shop? I’m pretty new to yeast cultivation, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like a plan.

As long as you picked up some of that yeast cake you are good. You will end up with a combination of the more flocculant yeast cells and the less flocculant yeast cells. The combination will more likely give the same results.
Have you experimented with harvesting yeast on a regular basis?