On Apr 27, 9:45 am, Boron Elgar wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:16:45 -0700 (PDT), Sergio

Add 2 tablespoons of AP
flour (or rye if this was a rye based, or you can split the starter at
this point and try for two separate ones, one based on white, one on
rye) and 2 tablespoons of water.

I'd use bleached AP (although the advice to split and use rye in one
and AP in the other is a good strategy).

The reason I'd avoid refreshing a really old starter with rye is
you'll probably start a "new" culture. The reason I'd use bleached, AP
flour and not regular AP is your original critters have their best
chance if you feed them the most sterile, least biologically active,
flour available. White, bleached flour has been heated and gassed.
Everything in it is dead.

My guess is that your cultures are not going to revive (at TFL they'd
be more optimistic, but this is RFS, so we need to maintain cred.). A
bakery levain is a culture that is typically developed on a super-
active, 24/7 refreshment schedule, probably using a dedicated
fermentor system. Months of cold, zero oxygen, and high acid levels
are tough challanges for something that's been well pampered. You
might want to start a new rye culture from scratch while you're
waiting and watching. It's a drop-dead easy proposition...