Yeah, one guy said he used a 1 gallon starter at about 1.050 OG... it'd be a project for sure.
For now, I'll have to stick with finishing with wine yeast. Just pitched 3 packs of 1118 into my barley wine. It was already 10% and I added more sugar to bump the gravity from 1.025 to 1.066. Seems to have taken off quite nicely! I think I'm going to have to dry hop the heck out of it to balance the flavour.