Restoring a dying starter | The Fresh Loaf

Are there some better tricks to revive a starter that was left unfed at room temperature for 2 days and now refuses to rise after feeding? It's a rye starter, usually fed 10-32-40.

1) many people on internet recommend adding a pinch of commercial yeast to the starter for a boost. And they seem to use that method with success. However I stay reserved... How can commercial yeast help if the wild yeast is a different kind?

2) can adding some juice for feeding help? (just as when starting the starter). I've seen that somewhere on TFL but don't remember the context - in what situation can juice (or another acidic medium) help. Any ideas?

3) How can one know whether it is yeast or bacteria that are missing (or overgrowing)?

1) I agree with you, spiking wild-yeast with commercial yeast is counter-productive. It will just set the reviving process back imo. Even so, in the immediate term mixing flour,water and commercial yeast is bound to produce a bubbly result which I guess some people mistake as having revived their starter. IMO what they did is contaminate their starter (assuming diff strains of yeast are present) so as I said, it just makes full recovery a longer process. 2) I doubt that adding juice would help. It's used in the initial creation process to quickly lower the pH of the mix in order to suppress the growth of unwanted bacteria (leuconostics). A starter that has been left unfed will imo already be very acidic as a direct result of that neglect so adding juice I doubt will make a difference. 3) I guess the smell is the main indicator. There's a post somewhere on the site that explains the different smells and what they mean. Use the search engine to pick it out. In the end, I think most starters (esp rye) are pretty resilient. Just feed it, and keep it at optimal temperature and it should come back.

Does your starter get bubbly or frothy at all?

I would just do 2-3 feedings and you should be fine. A couple of days at room temperature should not kill your starter but probably just made it go into overdrive and eat all of it's resources. Do not use commercial yeast like what the first commentator said as that will surely contaminate your starter.

When I revive my room temp desiccated starter after returning from a long trip (2-3 weeks), I find it can take 24 hours or more to wake up and expand. It normally doubles in 4-6 hours under the same conditions. Desiccation obviously kills off a large fraction of the bug population (or sends that fraction into a deeply dormant state) and repopulation of the culture with actively mitosing cells takes several more doubling times than normal. fwiw, I crumble up my desiccated starter into a mortar and powder it down somewhat with the pestle before scraping it into a mason jar to rehydrate and flour-feed it.

Patience. And certainly do NOT add commercial yeast to "give it a boost". That's like sending in wolves to wake up napping sheep.

Tom

is not treated. Not rising after only two days doesn't make sense to me unless the water is heavily treated and something in it is killing off your starter bugs.

Find and feed your back up starter and/or start up another one right away while you wait.

Don't put commercial yeast in. The whole point is you want wild yeast.

I think a feed or two with pineapple juice will give it a jump start then switch back to water.

Thank you for all your comments.

After the second feeding the starter is slowly rising Again.

Mini Oven - Yes, you're right it's strange. I have no idea what really put the starter asleep. It was very acidic but without aceton odor. Maybe a bit too much of acetic acid piled up?

ElPanadero, AbeNW11 - hmmm. So what would be the condition where using juice is good? Maybe an overfed starter?

No juice at this stage.

I misunderstood "reviving" your starter. Didn't read carefully enough. Was under the impression that you had an old starter that had been neglected and you wished to revive it. Thought it might have been because of a lack of feeding bad bacteria might have gotten in and taken hold making the starter go "off". Therefore I suggested lowering the PH level by adding pineapple juice to help kill off the bad bacteria and therefore giving the yeasts a chance.

After having re-read your post I now fully understand. Listen to ElPanadero and Mini Oven.

I think with some TLC you should have no problem. It's only two days.

AbeNW11 - thanky you very much for your comment. Now it's clear.

(BTW, I am really learning some very goo English here :) TLC - that's nice! Thank you)

Is the other ingredient a starter needs :)

I think your starter will be fine. Carry on as usual and it'll be back to full health in no time.

Glad to help.