On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:35:35 -0700 (PDT), Will
wrote:

In Kenneth's situation it looks like he ran the starter too long at 80
F. Could have been a feeding thing. His starter was more depleted than
he realized at the beginning. Or maybe he didn't run it at 80 F. he
ran it at 95 F. perhaps his thermostat is bad, or it might be a
balance thing where he refreshed successfully over the last umpteen
bake cycles but chilled his reserve before the populations rebalanced.
Who knows?

The soft dough ball thing has recovered my starter a few times. It's
hard to kill a starter. Billions of critters and all. At least a few
thousand survive underfeeding and over heating. Starter glop can be
notoriously uneven in temperature distribution. And temperature drives
critter cycles. So... I pull a little of the "endangered" material,
make my dough ball, put it in the cellar where it's 50 F. and leave it
alone. It usually self-restores. It seems to work a bit better if I
add a bit of cooked cereal, like oatmeal or barley to buffer it. And
no, you don't have to add cooked meal, you can add the raw stuff...
but in Kenneth's case, we have a pedigreed starter, so de-crittered
material: white flour and boiled cereal, are important
considerations.

Hi Will,

Nope...

The problem that I am having was not caused by running it
too warm.

It had been perfectly fine, and I took some, added as much
flour as I could, formed a very stiff ball, sealed it in a
jar, and put it in the refrigerator.

That's just what I have done for many years, but this time,
when I next took out a piece of that storage starter, it did
not come back properly.

Hmmm. Reading your comments again, I see that I may have
misinterpreted what you wrote:

When I took the piece of storage starter and added water and
flour to it, I did try to revive it at 80F (or, so, I don't
recall exactly) but it did not increase at all in volume.

That may be the stage at which you though I was "too warm"
and you certainly may be correct.

Since I read your suggestion, I have tried again at 55, but
it has only been about 12 hours so I don't know much yet.

I'll keep you posted.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

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