Starter gone bad? | The Fresh Loaf

I have been maintaining a starter for about 3-4 months. I left it in the refrigerator for 3 weeks without feeding and took it out today to revive it. I noticed that the liquid on top was a dark color. Does this indicate it has gone bad and should be thrown away, or can I revive it as usual? Does it depend upon the smell? Thanks

As long as the liquid isn't pink, I believe it can be revived quite successfully. I simply stir in the dark liquid on top.

The brown liquid is known as "hooch" is a mixture of water and ethanol. It occurs when you leave a starter unfed. It is not a problem. All you need to do to revive your starter is give it a few normal feeds, leaving it out at room temperature throughout, at least 1 feed per day. You can either stir the hooch back in (which will retain a quite sour flavour) or you can pour it off. Just depends on what flavours you like really. If you are in an experimentative mood and want to give yourself confidence that hooch is fine, then split the starter in 2 and stir the hooch into one half only and feed both to see what the results come out like. If you don't particularly like a strong tart sour taste then in your feedings use more flour/water than actual starter. e.g. a normal feed for a 100% hydration starter would be 20g starter + 20g flour + 20g water. To make the starter milder you could for example do 10g starter + 30g flour + 30g water for a few feeds until it revives and then switch back to normal. Would be useful if others could confirm my thoughts here ATB

Coincidentally I've been keeping a bit of starter in the back of my fridge, unfed. It's been there at least a couple of months, maybe three, without any attention whatsoever. Last night I dumped off the hooch, took 10g and made some rye levain.

This morning:

Rye Sour

I brought out my mature starter from the fridge (about a year old) to revive for baking. It was in a canning jar with lid left on a bit loose for air to enter. It had been in there unfed for about 3 weeks. Before that i made several loaves of bread. There was no hooch on top, rather it appeared somewhat dried out on top, a layer about a quarter inch thick that was the same tan color as the starter underneath, that looked like small curved threadlike filaments. No pink or black or yellow coloration or streaks. Was this just dried yeast cells? It had an odor like Limburger cheese. I hope it is ok! I fed it flour and water in 100 percent hydration amounts and am seeing it is rising and bubbling. I wonder if the lid not being on tight, that may have allowed unfriendly bacteria in inside the jar from food in my fridge? I thought it should not be on tight to avoid exploding. But I guess in the fridge, it wouldn't do that anyway.

thank you, MClare