wff_ng_7 wrote:

> What I was thinking is if you don't divide it and only reuse a small
> portion, the beasties will take over at room temperature.

What will happen is the fermentation will proceed at a fast
rate increasing the acidity to the point where the organisms
can't survive. At some point the starter "dies".

> I'm sure if you
> only reuse a small portion and feed that every day, you can keep it at room
> temperature indefinitely.

Here's the method I used when I was maintaining my starter at
room temperature.

- Refresh every 24 hours
- 72 F ambient temp
- 64 F water temp when refreshing

Under these conditions, the refresh ratio held
steady at 15:1.

> But that's a tremendous waste, unless one has a
> use for the tossed portion.

Yes, that's the issue. There are some that advocate doing this
for a few cycles in order to "strengthen" a weak starter, Nancy
Silverton being one of them.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com