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My sourdough starter went completely flat after a cross country move
I moved from Portland to Charlotte last month and packed my starter, 'Bubbles', with me in a cooler. I fed it the night before the drive and it looked great. Two days into the trip, stuck in a hotel in Kansas, I opened the jar and it was just a gray, watery mess with no bubbles at all. I tried feeding it twice a day with my usual King Arthur flour for three days straight and got nothing. It's like the stress of the trip killed the culture I'd kept alive for three years. I'm starting over from scratch now and it's just so frustrating. Has anyone else had to revive a starter after a big move? What finally worked?
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ryan_carr5921d agoProlific Poster
Man, that gray watery stage is actually a normal part of the process when a starter is stressed and super hungry. It's not dead, it's just throwing a fit. You might have jumped the gun on starting over. Next time, try just one feeding with whole wheat or rye flour to kick it back into gear, then wait a full 24 hours before you panic. Sometimes they just need a minute to remember how to be alive.
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