Sourdough starter when is it bad

Sourdough starters spoil when the mixture is contaminated by bacteria. It is not advisable to eat a sourdough starter that you suspect may have gone bad as you could end up getting sick if you eat a spoiled sourdough starter. It is important to know the signs of a bad sourdough starter before preparing your sourdough starter.

This will save you time and energy, preventing you from only realizing something is wrong when you bake the bread, while also helping you avoid falling ill from eating bad sourdough. After preparing your sourdough starter using either dried yeast or wild yeast, examine the color of your sourdough starter. If you notice your sourdough starter is pink, orange, or dark brown , this is an indication that the starter is contaminated and that you should toss out the batch.

While there is some lee-way for tending to your starter, neglecting your starter will cause mold to develop or result in the bad bacteria taking over the batch.

Mold can manifest in various colors and is generally fuzzy in appearance. Any orange or pink shades or streaks are an indication that bad bacteria has taken over your batch. As your sourdough starter is developing, you may notice a liquid forming on top of the starter. Hooch is the alcohol given off as the wild yeast begins to ferment. It is important to ensure your starter has been fed regularly because failure to do so causes hooch to arise on top of your starter.

The presence of hooch indicates that your starter is hungry and needs to be maintained. Hooch can change colors and still be edible. If your starter is neglected for an extensive time period, you may see the turn from a clear color to a dark color.

While gray, black, or brown hooch does not indicate your starter has spoiled, a streak of pink or orange in your hooch is a cause for concern. If your hooch displays a pink or orange tint or streak, this is a sign that your starter has gone bad. It takes several days to develop a starter, but once done, and properly maintained, you can use your sourdough base for several years. Sourdough starters require you to pay scrupulous attention to your equipment.

You want yeast to grow in your starter, not bacteria. Should bacteria contaminate the mixture, your sourdough starter will go bad, and you should discard it to avoid illness. Learn the signs of a bad sourdough starter before you prepare your base. Closely examine your sourdough starter for color. Dark brown or pink starters have been contaminated. When I teach sourdough bread baking at my workshops, the overwhelming majority of questions I get are about the sourdough starter.

An established sourdough starter is able to survive surprisingly difficult conditions, including neglect. As long as it is given a food source before it is due to be added to dough, and shows some signs of activity, then it can thrive and continue producing great sourdough bread forever. Maintaining a sourdough starter is a source of concern for many bakers who are starting their sourdough journey, and rightly so. If your sourdough starter is established, then it usually goes through a cycle of rising and then going back down to its original level again.

The point at which it peaks in height is when it has its most strength in terms of rising power. As long as it has been at least a few hours since you last fed it, and it is showing signs of activity, your starter can be used to make bread.

It really depends on what you want out of your bread. For more detailed information on when to use sourdough starter, check out my article here where I go through what happens if you use it at different stages, both before and after it has peaked, and how it affects your bread.

Runny liquid floating on the surface of your sourdough starter is perfectly normal, and actually shows that your starter is feeding well! If your sourdough starter starts to run out of food sugars and starches in your flour , then it will start to produce hooch. Hooch is a runny liquid that ranges in color. It can be clear , brown , grey or even black. Usually, the longer the hooch has been left, the darker the liquid will become.

A starter with hooch on the top simply means the starter is hungry for more flour. If you see hooch on top of your starter, you can simply stir it straight into the starter, and feed your starter the way you normally would.

There is no need to drain the hooch out. This can complicate your hydration levels. Hooch should only occasionally be found on your starter. Usually if you have left it a while longer than normal between feedings.

It is literally running out of food before you are feeding it again. In this case, you need to increase the amount of flour and water you are feeding your starter each time.

This should get rid of any hooch developing too often. Feed the starter enough to roughly double its volume. The more starter you have, the more flour and water it will need. For example, if you have roughly half a cup of sourdough starter. Then it will need to be fed a quarter cup of flour, and quarter cup of water. This will mean the sourdough starter will double its volume. I never measure how much starter I have, but I do weigh how much flour and water I am putting into my starter in order to keep hydration levels accurate.

Many bakers just add a little flour and a little water without any measurements at all, and the starter does just fine. If this is the case, increase the amount of flour and water you are feeding it by a little. This is a very common question that beginners have. If you are used to feeding your sourdough starter every day and leaving it on your counter top, what happens if you want to go away on holiday? The simplest solution is to place it in the fridge.

Sourdough starter can be placed in the fridge to slow down its fermentation rate considerably. I now store mine regularly in the fridge, and only take it out when I want to bake some bread. I go through a step by step illustrated guide on how to store your starter 3 different ways depending on how long you want to keep it for. You can freeze it, dry it, or keep it in the fridge; my article will explain in detail how to do all three.

If you see hooch becoming quite dark in color, give your starter a mix, feed it, and then pop it back in the fridge again.