First off the good news: its not that easy to kill a sourdough starter. I’ve neglected mine so badly, and when refed, it always revives.
But it wasn’t always that way. My first sourdough starter that I made I ended up dumping. In hindsight, it wasn’t really dead. It was just massively underfed.
I taught myself how to make a sourdough starter from scratch in 2021. It took a lot of time and experiments before my sourdough bread tasted delicious.
The first few loaves were tangy! And barely edible.
Underfeeding your starter is one of the most common reasons why a a sourdough starter will become inactive, but feeding it is also one of the easiest ways to keep a sourdough starter alive.
But wait….
When A Sourdough Starter Needs to Be Tossed
There are instances when a sourdough starter will need to be tossed.
The main one is mold.
Never mess with mold on your starter.
Mold in a food like sourdough is usually not ideal. I don’t trust moldy anything, from canned tomato soup to yogurts, or sour cream.
If there is mold, it has got to go.
Mold on cheese is the only place I give a little leeway.
It’s one of the safety protocols that gets enforced in my kitchen. I trust my nose, and use my sight.
If it doesn’t look and smell edible, we are not trusting that to not harm us.
How To Keep A Sourdough Starter Alive
On to how to keep a sourdough starter alive.
Maybe you got gifted or bought a sourdough starter from someone.
This is a great way to start with sourdough baking because you already have an active, healthy starter to start with. No need to feed, and refeed constantly before baking.
You’re golden and on to sourdough baking.
There are three main ways to store a sourdough starter. In the fridge, in the freezer, or on the counter. Each place has a purpose, and will require different ways of feeding.
Storing Your Sourdough Starter in the Fridge
You will store your starter in the fridge if you want to bake with it at least once a week. Ideally it needs to fed at least once a week.
In my household it sometimes takes longer than that when not baking constantly with it.
I go through sourdough kicks where I’ll bake constantly with it.
And then just as quickly I will forget about it for a month.
As I am pregnant with #6, sourdough has been a craving. I just fed my neglected sourdough starter today, and plan to bake with in it a few days.
If you store your sourdough starter in the fridge, feed it at least once a week to keep it alive.
Ready to use? Take it out of the fridge, and make your recipe.
Refeed, and put back in fridge.
The cold temperature of the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, giving you a less active starter, but also a starter that doesn’t need as many feedings.
Storing Sourdough Starter in the Freezer
This is a mistake that I see a lot of casual sourdough bakers make.
If you are not in the season of wanting to or being able to feed your starter consistently, don’t dump it!
Take a small amount of starter (2 tbsp.), feed with half cup of flour, half cup of water and mix well.
Put into a labeled bag or container of choice, and store it in the freezer. The sourdough bug will bite you again, and you won’t need to find or make a new sourdough starter.
I’ve done this several times, and it has always served me well.
My family isn’t entirely on the sourdough everything trend (although they do love these scones!), so I take breaks from sourdough.
Once you’re back to sourdough, it’s as easy as taking out the starter, putting it into a glass jar, and feeding it.
It will take a feeding or 2 before it’s all bubbly, but then you’re on a roll again.
Storing Your Sourdough Starter on the Counter
Storing your sourdough starter on your counter will produce the most active and needy starter. It can be the best way to store it if you’re using it constantly.
But it also needs to fed at least daily, and sometimes twice a day.
To keep a starter alive that is being kept in a warm spot such as a kitchen counter, make sure to feed it every day.
If you are still getting a lot of hooch (which is the layer of liquid that forms on top), feed it twice a day.
A very hungry starter will have a layer of hooch within 12 hours, and will also smell really strong.
I prefer not making bread with a strong smelling sourdough starter, as it produces a very “sour” tasting product.
I recently took my sourdough starter out of the fridge, as it had been neglected for over a month.
There was a 1/2 inch layer of hooch on top, and smelled strongly.
I discarded all of the starter, except for about 2 tbsp. A smaller amount of starter will require less flour and water to revive it back into a healthy starter.
Knowing how to keep a sourdough starter alive is a simple way to build success in sourdough baking. You can do this!
Sourdough baking was one of those intimidating skills to learn as a young homesteader, but with time and practice it is possible to perfect the art.