I often have people tell me, “I killed my sourdough starter.” Or they ask me, “Is my starter dead?”
What happens if you don’t feed your starter?
A sourdough starter needs to be refreshed (by discarding and feeding) on a regular basis. Without this regular maintenance, the microorganisms in the starter begin to starve and are overwhelmed by their waste byproducts.
A sourdough starter can also become unhealthy when fed repeatedly without discarding the bulk of former batches, which is a common mistake I’ve seen beginning sourdough bakers make.
Review how to care for your sourdough starter in this post.
How to Revive a Sourdough Starter that seems dead:
You will need at least two jars or clean containers, water, all-purpose or bread flour, and a spoon. To revive the neglected sourdough starter, you will refresh it 3 times up to 5 times until the activity is back to what a healthy sourdough starter’s activity is like: doubles in volume in 6-12 hours, large bubbles, ripe fruit/slight sour smell during active period, a tablespoon floats on water. (To find out more about sourdough starters, you can visit this page: What is a Sourdough Starter?)
Refresh #1
- Get out a new jar or clean container.
- Use a spoon to scoop out a teaspoon to tablespoon amount of the old neglected sourdough starter and place in the new jar. (The old neglected sourdough starter can be thrown away.)
- Add 60g (1/4 c.) room temperature water to the jar with the teaspoon or tablespoon of old sourdough starter. Then add 60 g (7 T.) all-purpose or bread flour.
- Mix well until there is no dry flour left.
- Place top loosely on top of the jar then let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours you should see some activity–ideally it should be about doubled in volume with lots of bubbles.
Refresh #2
- Get a new jar (or clean container). And add a tablespoon amount of the sourdough starter.
- To the new jar add 60g (1/4 c.) room temperature water and 60 g (7 T.) all-purpose or bread flour.
- Stir the tablespoon of sourdough starter, water, and flour together. Mix well until there is no dry flour left.
- Place top loosely on top of the jar then let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
Refresh #3
- Get a new jar (or clean container). And add a tablespoon amount of the sourdough starter.
- To the new jar add 60g (1/4 c.) room temperature water and 60 g (7 T.) all-purpose or bread flour.
- Stir the tablespoon of sourdough starter, water, and flour together. Mix well until there is no dry flour left.
- Place top loosely on top of the jar then let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. *
* Notes: If your sourdough starter is back to a healthy activity level, then I would advise trying to use it after 8-10 hours during the active period rather than waiting 24 hours. However, if it is showing signs of activity but not vigorous yet–it’s not bubbling very much or the rising in volume is still taking longer, wait the full 24 hours then do repeat the refreshing process two more times.
How to tell if your sourdough starter is dead?
There are a few circ*mstances that would make me get rid of my starter.
First, I would say throw away my starter if it was seriously contaminated in some way by broken glass or an active mold problem.
Second, if it was no longer rising or becoming active, after repeated care, I would get a new one.
Here are some general notes about when I’d advise getting a new starter:
- Even after 5 refreshing periods the starter isn’t bubbling or showing signs of activity.
- If the starter smells rotten. A neglected starter that’s still viable will have a layer of alcohol on top (sometimes called “hooch”) that smells strong like acetone but not rotten.
- If mold is growing. However, if getting a new sourdough starter is too difficult or it’s a survival situation, I have experimented with taking off the top layer of moldy sourdough starter then used a fresh utensil to take a core sample from the old sourdough starter to refresh and bring it back to life. Personally, I wouldn’t do this unless it was a desperate circ*mstance since I know people in the area who can give me a spoonful of healthy sourdough starter.
How do you get a new sourdough starter?
There are some occasions when I would advise someone to simply move on and either get some from a friend, purchase one (See some options for purchasing here), or make a fresh sourdough starter (See step by step instructions here: How to Make a Sourdough Starter or get my Sourdough Quick Start Guide here).
Have you experienced this?
Sourdough starters are truly amazing and resilient! Have you ever thought your starter was dead or successfully brought one back to life? I’d love to hear your story in the comments or you can send me an email. Or do you have follow up questions? I’d love to answer them!
Also, if you haven’t attempted sourdough yet or still feel confused on how to use it, I’ve created user friendly sourdough courses and resources that have helped hundreds of new sourdough bakers here: Intro. to Sourdough online course
For a more complete introduction to sourdough, check out my Sourdough Quick Start Guide here:
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