My sourdough starter was looking weak, so I had to choose between feeding it again or just starting a new batch from scratch.

Gavin Flores · 2026-03-21T22:50:03.584954+00:00

I went with feeding it again, and after 12 hours it finally doubled in size, so has anyone else had a starter seem dead but come back with one more feed?

noah_davis7mo ago

My starter "Vincent" looked like gray dishwater for a solid week last month. I was ready to give it a funeral, but gave it one last feed with some whole rye flour. Woke up to the lid popped off and batter on my ceiling. They can be surprisingly stubborn.

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ben4866mo ago

My buddy's looked dead until he used pineapple juice once.

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vera_brown407mo ago

My grandma's starter from 1978 survived three moves and a power outage by just using warm potato water once. The thing about starters is they're basically a tiny ecosystem, not just yeast. What @noah_davis saw with the rye flour makes sense because that different food can wake up the good bacteria that's been sitting quiet. Sometimes the weak look isn't about the yeast being gone, but the balance being off. Giving it that one more feed with maybe a different flour or warmer water can let the right microbes win again.

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