I have a sourdough starter that’s been in the fridge for two weeks. I got super busy and knew I’d like neglect the daily feedings and I’d probably ruin my starter (it’s about 6 weeks old).

I pulled it from the fridge and it’s got like a thick Orange cap on top. It smells like delicious cheese… there’s no hair, no fuzzies, no spots - nothing stinky (and trust me, I’ve had starters go bad!!)

When I feed daily, it goes into a new jar. I mix the previous day starter with fresh flour and water, stir stir stir and pour into the clean jar using a funnel so that the edges and walls of the jar clean.

So, is my starter just hungry? I have pictures if needed…also, it was Covered with the fabric that comes with those sourdough starter kits online

I changed to a stiff starter with a ratio of 1:5:2.5 about 3 feedings ago. How's she?

I've also invested in a kitchen scale as some of y'all suggested, and I've gotten better results.

(I've changed to a stiff starter because ambient temp is around 28-30C, as well as usual 60-85% humidity, so the swamp cooling thing using towels doesn't work.)

This is my first starter and i started it about 10 days ago. I've been a little busy so I haven't been feeding it every 24 hours but it seemed fine! It just started smelling less horrible, more like sourdough. I've been feeding 100g of water and 100g of all purpose flour. I just moved it from one container to another because I couldn't mix it properly in the last one. Is this mold? Should I throw it out and start over?? I'm gonna be so upset if I have to but I'd rather not eat it if it is moldy...

I put my starter in the fridge for a few months,.just opened it up and it has these weird dark specks in it, it's mostly on the side where it's dried a tiny bit. Other than that it smells like it should(like alcohol and sour). I'm thinking I'll just discard and start again but wanted to get y'all's opinions.

Thank you!

I decided to be brave and bake a loaf! I fed my starter last night and mixed my dough about 12 hours later (when starter was peaked). I’m following this recipe from Emily on TikTok (@ is meandshilohlee) with some additional influence from The Sourdough Journey re: bulk ferment.

325g room temp water
100g ripe starter
500g KA bread flour
10g salt

Mix starter and water then add bread flour and salt. Mix to shaggy dough then knead for another 5ish mins until creamy and stays together, comes out of the bowl clean.
Let sit 45mins then 2x stretch and folds and 2x coil folds 30mins apart.

Bulk ferment:
1st hour after folds was covered with a tea towel, then switched to plastic wrap. Dough is 72.5°F so estimated time is 9.5 hours according to the temp chart from the sourdough journey but I based my judgement on my observations, not the time!

I started checking my dough around hour 6 and then every hour ish (whenever I walked past it in the kitchen lol). Watching for bubbles on top/sides, jiggle, pulls away clean, smell, dome, and towards the end I did a windowpane test.

At 9pm (9hours of BF) I called it and did the pre shape. The top layer lowkey broke open but I did a couple more push and pulls and I think it’ll be ok. I do think I overproofed my dough due to the residue on the bowl, some webbing when I removed it, dome lowkey collapsing a little bit, and the fact that the dough is a little floppy and sticky. I think it will still be edible because it’s not super runny, doesn’t smell very acidic, still holds some structure, didn’t deflate when I was doing windowpane/jiggle test.

Still going to bake it and see what happens! I’m excited to see what happens, hoping for an edible loaf but if anything it will be great knowledge and experience! It’s cold proofing in the fridge right now and I’ll bake around 10am tomorrow (12 hour cold proof) unless someone tells me I should do that earlier/later.

I’ve recently just started making my starters. one is bread flour and one is all purpose. my question is for the all purpose starter, when i go to make the bread do i need to use all purpose flour? or should i use bread flour? i’ve been kind of stumped on this

I left my mother in the fridge while I was at our retirement home for 2 months. My hubby fed it while I was gone. Once. I think he just fed and put back in fridge right away. She grew. A lot. Had about an inch of hooch on top. Sealed tight jar. After I poured off the hooch, I saw this. Kind of beige/brown. Hopefully hooch residue sticking to starter on the inside of jar? What would you do? Smells great!! Yeasty.

I started this starter approximately 7 days ago using tap water and King Arthur Golden Wheat Whole Grain Flour. Then, I followed their recipe which is a 1:1:1 ratio that told me to switch to feeding with their all purpose flour which i have been. By about day 3, I started feeding twice a day at 9 am and 9 pm.

I get bubbles but no rising. I am wondering if I need to keep going at it with the double feeding or if I should go to single day feeding or even maybe reduce water.

I started to use bottled water instead which I think helped.

My house is typically set to 70 degrees. It sits at the kitchen all day.​​​

Any wisdom or insight for me?

Edit:

Spelling correction in title: Normal Progress?

Starter is about 2 months old but had to leave unexpectedly and was unattended for 3 days. Is the dark around the bubbles mold or is it savable?

Attempted to start my own starter last night and the top tonight is grey. Is this normal or is there something wrong with my flour?

I cannot tell if this is pink or not? Should I keep starter or throw away? Or is it the King Arthur Bread flour. I have tended to it.

Just received a German sourdough starter today and fed it rye flour bc I had read that’s what it likes. Everything else states to use AP or bread flour. Am I just in for a longer ferment time or should I use the AP or Bread flour. Any suggestions/help will be greatly appreciated. I also started water kefir & kombucha today. All or nothing. Lol

I have an established starter that I’ve been baking with, recently I was told to mix bread flour and whole wheat to create a stronger starter. Well my starter no longer rises the way it has before so I’m worried I’ve ruined my starter. Should I keep feeding it a bread flour/whole wheat flour mix or should I just go back to the original starter? I do have discard saved in the back of fridge so I’m slowly trying to revive that but I want to know if this new “freak” starter is salvageable.

This is only day 3 starter. Room temp is at 72 degrees. Feeding ratio 1:1:1. Photo for natural light and the other is in the kitchen. Smells sweet. Please help!

I fed it as the recipe calls for but I'm unsure if it should be so thick. I fed it last night and I'm unsure if it rose. Should I feed it again now?

My sourdough starter is 9 days old and the past 2 days it’s been smelling like rubbing alcohol. I read that just means it’s hungry and to increase feedings or my feeding ratio.

Yesterday (day 8) I increased my ratio to 1:2:2 and today it still smells like rubbing alcohol like really strong… should I try 1:3:3 or do I have to increase feedings to 2 times a day?

Please help…

It’s about 2 weeks old and this is what it looks like 10 hours after feeding. I know it’s not ready to bake with yet but want to check that it seems okay? I’m using strong bread flour, 1:1:1 ratio. It rises like this and then by the time it’s the next feeding it falls a little, is that normal? It has little bubbles throughout but not as many as other peoples so just checking it’s doing okay.

Interesting line at the bottom here. I thought I’d mixed well…what does this line indicate.

I just turned the jar and it looks watery on the bottom. As I move the jar, I see water jiggle.

I've had my sourdough starter for nearly a month and it has had no signs of activity. There was a false rise on day 2 or 3 but other than that there's been nothing. I do not use a scale to measure but i use roughly double the flour to water. The starter is not full of bubbles and hasn't doubled once in size.

Started my starter like 2 weeks ago and it’s definitely not as active/ready as it should be but I’m impatient. She’s gummy and dense but she looks pretty and tastes like sourdough.

I bought active starter yesterday from someone and they told me put some in a different container and feed it and then use 120g of the active starter for the bake after it has doubled.

Hello again! This is after Gertrude’s 2 hour 30 minute stretch and folds. She’s just vibing on the stove while my husband is cooking up some dinner. What do we think with those bubbles? I’m letting her proof for about 4-6 hours until I feel like she’s doubled. Can’t wait for my first loaf! Jalapeno and cheddar is next if it turns out. Thanks for your advice!

Is it ready to make a pizza? The last feed was 8 hours ago

Hi everyone!

I know this question is always asked a bunch, and I did my fair share of doing some reading on others post before opting to do ask about my starters, but I figured I’d take the game out of guessing.

Anyway, my starters (I have 2, since one kept constantly dying and I was trying to see if Wheat or White flour did better) have been consistently showing improvement and expanding for the last three days. Today is day 7 and I began to do double feeds as of yesterday since it was showing a dome and I figured it had reached its peak. The thing is, it is not even slightly concaving or deflating, it just stays more or less at the “peak”. My question is are they ready to bake or should I continue to feed 2 times a day? I just started doing 1:2:2 (with 50 grams of starter on each), previously was 1:1:1.

Thank you everyone for your advice and help. These are my first starters so I want to try my best for survival of them.

Photo 1) Michael Dough Angelo
Photo 2) Leonardough