Was on a roll Tuesday then my starter went flat and it cost me 30 loaves

I had the best baking week in years at the shop, sold out of everything by noon three days in a row, then my sourdough starter completely died on me Tuesday morning and I had to toss 30 proofed loaves. Has anyone else had a starter just give up out of nowhere like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

stella27915d ago

Wait, 30 loaves? That's like 2 days of work for a small shop, that's brutal. Honestly I can't believe it went flat all of a sudden like that, usually starters are pretty tough little things. Did you check if maybe it got too cold or something weird happened with your water? Ngl that much waste would make me want to cry into a flour sack for a week.

elliotw3715d ago

The yeast supplier for that batch might be the real culprit here, not the starter. @stella279, I've seen cases where a bad batch of commercial yeast can mess up fermentation timing even in sourdough setups. If she added any commercial yeast to speed things up or boost activity, a dead batch would explain the sudden flatness. Plus, 30 loaves going flat at once points to a common ingredient failure, not a slow starter die-off. She should check the lot number on her yeast bags and see if anyone else in her area had problems. That much waste is a nightmare, but at least she'd know it was out of her control.