It has been a trial up here getting a sourdough starter err..... started.. With so many projects, I have let this one fall off. I threw out my old starter when we moved. I wanted to get yeasts from my new area and start from scratch.

So I set up the water and flour method and left out the container covered with a towel and began catching yeast. I thought it was going good, put it in the fridge, and poof, it either moved out or died.

So again, I set it up, and finally a couple days ago it was bubbling and having a good ol time. I have been feeding it about a 1/2 cup of rye flour a day, 1/4 cup in the morning, another at night. The bread I made yesterday was incredible. It was SO sour! My old starter tasted nothing like this. I am assuming the change of area just brought in a totally different strain of yeast/bacteria. Whatever it is, I love it.

I am really a bit apprehensive about putting it in the fridge, yet don't want to be tied down feeding it every day. I just don't make bread that often (about twice a week). Any ideas why it died out the first time I refrigerated it? I mean, I let it warm up for two days (and fed it) last time and nothing.

I guess I should split it up, and try again with one half and see if it recovers.

When I made my starter it took over a week to develop and I fed it each night. After the first week I then put it in the fridge but feed it once a week. When I feed it I will add 1 cup of flour and one cup of spring water. Usually when a starter goes bad a pink liquid will be on the surface. I learned the hard way not to ever make a starter in a metal container, lol. Also when I use any for my bread I replace what I use. Do you make a sponge with your starter the night before you make your bread?

Sounds like maybe it was just not a good starter to begin with? In Beard on Bread he pretty much says, if a starter hasn't developed in a few weeks it ain't going to get a lot better.
However, the one I have now I started in '98. There are several stories with it, have taken some of it to work, all over Alaska and half way around the world, came home and added it back to the mother jar.

When I worked in logging camps (before lots of water regs), the camps were floating and we moved around Southeast Alaska from job to job. We got water on a gravity feed from the nearest creek. Aways a surprise as to all the bread acted with different water. On time there was an artesian spring nearby. Water tasted great, but with lack of minerals, the bread was boring.

Reminds me of all the people I have met in Florida from New York and Chicago who swear you can't make bread or especially pizza with the water there.

If it gets pink it is dead and dangerous. When I am home, sometimes for several months, mine gets almost a black hootch on top, mix it all in with equal flour and water, toss half and do it again until it is fairly white.

Have you read Bourdain's Kitchen Confidental--where the amazing baker is a mess in every way!!! would call in and tell guys on duty "you must feed the b**ch!".

Enjoy the new "kid" and Merry Christmas!
Nan

RE: "Have you read Bourdain's Kitchen Confidental--where the amazing baker is a mess in every way!!! would call in and tell guys on duty "you must feed the b**ch!"."

Although many have recommended it, I haven't read "Kitchen Confidential", Nan- but now I have to!

I never worked much w/ Sourdough until Alaska. It's impossible to run a kitchen up north without offering it in all it's forms from pancakes & waffles to biscuits...

My starter eventually bit the dust and it is so cold here right now, I don't feel like getting it going again. Will probably start one in the spring.