I think I killed my starter!

[lakota]

Well I forgot all about my sour dough starter all the way back there in the fridge all summer. I took it out yesterday and let it warm up to room temperature and it just smells like dough today. No beer odor no bubbles no nuthin!

Is it done for?

 

[boar]

Did you feed it some flour to work on?. I keep one in freezer for a back up. Had mine since 1982. I have saved others who had let them dry up by adding some flour, sugar,water and a little vinegar. All depends on how far gone. Dilly

 

[Birdman]

Starters will go dorment after they sit in a fridge for a forgotten period of time. Stir it up good n feed it like ya normally would, be patient it may take 3 or 4 days before ya see any bubbles at all. If it bubbles just a little after a week, split it in two parts n feed both, one or the other shoud kick off, I've had starters sit for near a year n kick off after a couple days with a good feeding, warm water n temps to reactivate it. Ya can even put in a little dry yeast if ya want to get things going, starters are usually just a wild strain of yeast or yeast like bacteria that yer just keeping handy, another trick is to use water from boiled(cooled off of course)potatos mixed with yer sugar to feed the mix

 

[lakota]

I had just been feeding it sugar, but lately I have been reading about feeding it flour as well. How often should I throw in flour? Every time I used it I replaced with and amount of flour and water equal to what I used but thats the only time I ever give it any flour.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Yeast is a tough beast. In hard times - and a few all the time - some of the spores "encyst" and form hard, impervious shells. That way, if conditions change, there's a good chance some spores will survive once they fall out of the dormant cyst state. Great survival strategy if you're a single-celled critter. The bacteria that causes tetanus does the same - that's why it's such a hard bugger to eradicate once established.

Anyway, warm the 'ol feller up and feed it (corn sugar works great if you can get it). It may take a few extra days but some yeast will re-establish. Just be careful to keep it covered so local, wild and not necessarily desireable airbourne yeast spores or bacteria don't find the host first.

Yeast and frementation is fascinating stuff - Zymurgy. I took two symesters of microbiology and it has paid off in homebrewing. :thumbsup:

 

[Birdman]

I usually feed mine potato flakes, sugar n warm water every so often(when I'm not baking, usually summer). when baking regular in the fall, winter n cool part of the spring I'll mix equal parts of potato flakes, flour n the sugar n warm water to a consistency of heavy cream, dump it in the starter n leave alone until needed next time. After it has set for a couple months during the summer is when I'll boil up some potatos for mashed n save the water, add flour n sugar to kick start the starter in the fall, hope that all makes sese

 

[ohio ramrod]

sour dough starter is just like a woman sour and in need of kneading. Just knead it well until soft and see if that doesn't warm it up to rising to the occasion.

 

[plinker]

I've got four starters in the refrigerator right now. All of them are at least 25 years old. All I ever add to them is flour and water. Once that gets going, I return the original amount to the refrigerator and start adding the ingredients that the recipe calls for to what is left. Now getting back to the original question, I usually use one of them for each weeks baking so they stay in the refrigerator for about 4 weeks between "freshenings". You have received a lot of good advice here. I would just take a half cup of the old starter, add a cup of flour and a cup of water, and let it set for 3-4 days and repeat if there were not a lot of bubbles by then. Happy baking.