How To Revive Sourdough Starter
Don’t throw away that neglected starter sitting in your fridge, revive your sourdough starter and bring it back to bubbly, active life with this simple feeding schedule and troubleshooting guide. Even starters forgotten for months can be brought back from the brink.
Craving The Details?
What it is: Reviving sourdough starter means feeding a mature starter that has been dormant in the refrigerator until the yeast and bacteria become active again.
Why you’ll love it: You don’t need to start over just because your starter has been sitting in the fridge for weeks or months.
How to do it: Remove the starter from the fridge, inspect it carefully, then feed a small amount equal weights of flour and water, let it ferment, repeating the process until it reliably rises.
Raise your hand if this sounds familiar…
You’re cleaning the fridge mid-September and you come across the sourdough starter you haven’t seen since May when the sunshine was calling and the shorts came out.
“Oh my god. FRED!”
Don’t worry, you can revive a sourdough starter that’s been long neglected in the fridge! Even if you neglected it as long as I did…
May 12, 2021 and September 15, 2021:
- 126 days
- … or 18 weeks
- … or 4 months & 3 days
So don’t throw out that old sourdough starter just yet!
This guide to reviving sourdough starter is dedicated to shorts season.
Note: You may hear this called reviving, reactivating, refreshing, restarting, or waking up sourdough starter. In this guide, I’m talking about the same basic process: taking a mature starter that has been dormant in the refrigerator and feeding it until it becomes reliably active again. Amount of feedings and recovery time depend on how long it was unfed.
Jump to:
- Craving The Details?
- Revive My Starter With Me!
- How Long Has Your Starter Been In The Fridge?
- Moldy Or Contaminated Sourdough Starter
- Reviving Sourdough Starter
- It’s Not Just You!
- Expert Tips
- Why This Process Works
- Reactivating Sourdough Starter FAQs
- Sourdough Starter Feeding + Maintenance
- Put That Sourdough Starter To Work!
- 📖 Printable Recipe
Revive My Starter With Me!
How Long Has Your Starter Been In The Fridge?
The length of time your starter has been in your fridge unfed will absolutely impact how long the reactivation process takes. Here’s a rough guideline on what to expect.
| Time in fridge | What to do |
|---|---|
| A few days to a few weeks | Bring it to room temp and feed it once, it should show normal activity within 6-12 hours but may need more than one feeding |
| Several weeks to a couple months | Give it 1-2 room temperature feedings 12 hours apart, and 1 feed at 24 hours before baking |
| Several months or longer | Follow the full revival process below. Expect it to take 3-5 days |
| Not sure how long it’s been | Follow the full revival process. Expect it to take 3-5 days |
| Mold or pink/orange/red streaks | Don’t try to revive it, toss your starter and start fresh |
Moldy Or Contaminated Sourdough Starter
While almost any starter can be revived, I don’t play with mold or bad bacteria. Fermenting foods takes a little bit of intuition and a little bit of ruthlessness. If something looks, smells, feels, or just could be bad – it finds the garbage quickly!
Look:
If your old starter has any kind of mold, toss that bad boy. Start fresh with my 24-hour starter recipe, and you’ll be just fine.
Once you determine your starter has no mold, look at the hooch – if it has grey or black-ish looking hooch, we’re in business. If the starter or hooch is pink-tinged, it’s straight to the trash bin, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Smell:
If the starter smells tangy, like vinegar, alcohol or even nail polish remover, that can happen when a starter has gone a long time without feeding. If it has a musty or moldy smell, smells like rotting meat or anything repulsive, toss your starter and start over.
Feel:
Texture alone isn’t a reason to throw out your starter, but it can help to identify contamination. A neglected starter should be thin and liquid, will likely have separation of the starter and hooch, and may have crusted, dried starter around the edges of your container.
Read More: How To Tell If Your Sourdough Starter Is Bad
Reviving Sourdough Starter
- Step 1: Remove the unfed sourdough starter from the fridge and allow it to rest at room temperature for 3-4 hours.
- Step 2: Look closely at the starter, discard immediately if your starter has mold, a pink/orange/red tinge, or smells musty, as these can be signs of contamination, so I don’t recommend trying to revive it.
If the starter passes the test, stir in the hooch, or pour it off.
Should I pour off the hooch or stir it in?
There are advocates on both sides of this debate. I prefer to stir it in, because I find (through very unscientific trials) that starters wake up better with the hooch stirred back in. I also believe that it helps keep my hydration percentage correct.
- Step 3: In a clean jar or container, mix 50g of the unfed starter with 50g warm water, stir until combined, then add in 50g flour.
- Step 4: Set aside the fed starter for 12 hours, then feed it again using a fresh clean jar, combine 50g starter, 50g water and 50g flour. Mark the side of your jar with the height of the starter. Watch the starter for signs of activity. It may be a little bit sluggish, but you should start to see a few bubbles here and there.
- Step 5: If the starter is close to doubling within 12 hours, wait 24 hours before feeding again. If the starter is not close to doubling by 12 hours later, feed it again – and repeat until the starter doubles within 12 hours, then reduce to a once every 24 hour feeding period.
- Step 6: Once the starter is revived and doubling regularly, it should be maintained on the counter and fed every 24 hours for 4-5 days. This will help get your starter healthy again before it’s placed back in the fridge.
- Step 7: Feed your starter weekly or bi-weekly once it’s in the fridge to keep it healthy and active.
How Do I Know If My Starter Is Ready To Bake With?
- It rises predictably after feeding
- It at least doubles within the expected timeframe for your feeding ratio and temperature
- It has bubbles throughout, not just on the surface
- It develops a domed top
- It smells pleasantly fermented
- It can repeat that same performance after consecutive feedings.
It’s Not Just You!
Other people have accidentally neglected their sourdough starter too! Here is what they had to say after saving their fermenty friends:
I was going to toss my sourdough starter thinking it I had to toss it. Thanks to this website I am reviving. This is the best site I have ever seen. Love the pictures and step by step instructions. This is now my source for all things sour dough.
– Dee
My starter would not rise and I needed an understanding and solutions. This article helped a lot!
– J
Expert Tips
- Don’t panic, feed it. A neglected starter can look rough after a long fridge nap, but ugly doesn’t mean dead. If there’s no mold or obvious contamination, give that fermenty baby some fresh flour, water, and a little time. There’s a very good chance you’ll be back to baking before you know it.
- Give it the once over. Before you start feeding, take a critical look at your starter. Hooch, separation, a strong fermented smell and generally sad appearance can all happen when a starter has been neglected. Mold or obvious spoilage is a different story. If something looks genuinely off, check my guide to figure out if your sourdough starter has gone bad and know when it’s time to let go.
- Stick with the usual. Try to feed your starter with the flour it was raised on. I like to keep it familiar when waking up sourdough starter. If you’ve always fed it bread flour, keep feeding it bread flour. The same goes for whole wheat, whole grain, all purpose, rye flour, or gluten-free. No need for a surprise party when your starter is already having a rough day.
- Mark the jar. Don’t always trust your eyes to tell you if your starter rose 25, 50 or 100%. A rubber band, a piece of tape, a hair tie, or a dry erase marker can make the rise much easier to track.
Why This Process Works
Yeast and bacteria slow way down. In a cold fridge, with no fresh food, there’s nothing to trigger the yeast and bacteria to feed and multiply, so they “hibernate”. Once the starter is refreshed with water and flour and moved to a warmer location, the microbes get the signal, loud and clear!
1:1:1 ratio lets microbes thrive. An unfed starter is basically starving, over time the bacteria and yeast consume the proteins and starches, leaving behind a sour, acidic environment. By using a 1:1:1 feeding ratio, you’re adding extra food and diluting the acidic environment. Over the first few re-fresh feedings you’re establishing a healthy balance.
Time is required. A 3-5 day window is pretty standard for reactivating sourdough starter. It takes time to wake up dormant starters, multiply enough to be noticeable and produce the bubbles and rise that tell you that it’s re-activated.
Reactivating Sourdough Starter FAQs
It depends on how neglected your starter was. If it doubled after a single feeding, it was probably in reasonably good shape. However, I do find that after a prolonged time without feeding, starters can double in the jar easily but lack the leavening power to raise bread.
I’ve done this in the past, and have been disappointed each time because my loaf was dense, flat, and bland.
My recommendation: Give it at least a second feed before baking, based on my experience.
You’ll need to discard all but 50g of the starter. The discarding portion is very important, as it allows you to feed the starter with the correct ratio without growing your starter exponentially, and it helps to quickly reduce the acidity in the starter environment.
Hooch (that grey liquid on top) is a sign that your starter is hungry, not that its bad. If it’s grey or smells like vinegar, that’s totally normal. Just keep feeding it on your regular schedule and it will bounce back.
The starter will eventually consume most of the proteins and starch in the starter then settle into a dormancy. The starter will likely generate a layer of hooch (grey liquid on top of the starter) and the environment will become more acidic. As long as the starter is not contaminated with mold or bacteria, it should be able to be reactivated.
You found your starter in the back of the fridge and have no idea when it was last fed. Could it be too old to save? Probably not!
Here’s what real readers have experienced:
* 1 year neglect: Michele left her starter in the fridge for almost a year without feeding it. She followed my revival process and it came back to life!
*5 year neglect: Lise had a COVID lockdown starter that sat untouched in her fridge for 5 years. She was skeptical, but followed the revival steps anyways. It took about a week, but her starter came back to life, happy and bubbly!
*3+ years frozen: Gary pulled a sourdough starter out of his freezer that had been there more than 3 years. His first few feedings were slow, but stuck with it and the starter came back.
What these experiences show: Starters can sometimes recover after surprisingly long periods of cold storage. Recovery time and success will vary depending on the condition of the starter, storage environment and how it responds to feeding.
Sourdough Starter Feeding + Maintenance
There’s a lot to sourdough, but there’s also not a lot to sourdough! One of the things you’ll have to decide is how often you’ll be baking. For me, in the fall and winter months, I bake much much more frequently. So I actually use different sourdough feeding and maintenance methods depending on the time of year.
Daily to Bi-weekly Baker
- you’ll want to keep your starter at room temperature and feed it daily. This will keep it warm and active whenever you’re ready for it!
- feed it around every 24 hours. You can play with the feeding schedule a bit, once you get to know your starter and how hungry it is. The starter should be fed after the culture doubles in size and deflates.
Weekly or Less Frequent
- keep your sourdough in the fridge! This slows down the fermentation time considerably and allows you to feed your sourdough only once a week.
- simply remove it from the fridge, then stir and feed, and rest for 12-24 hours at room temperature before starting with your recipe. Once the fed starter doubles, it is ready to use!
Want To Take A Longer Break?
Instead of leaving your starter unfed in the fridge indefinitely, you can freeze your starter or dehydrate sourdough starter for a long-term backup. These starter storage methods give you a safer “insurance policy” than relying on the jar in the back of the fridge.
Master Your Sourdough Starter In 5 Days!
From Confused To Confident.
Find success with 5 simple, actionable secrets delivered to you. No more guessing games - just clear, proven steps to a thriving starter.
Put That Sourdough Starter To Work!
If you tried this Guide to reviving sourdough starter or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Printable Recipe
How To: Revive Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- 50 g unfed sourdough starter
- 500 g flour, divided
- 500 g water, divided
Instructions
- Remove the unfed sourdough starter from the fridge and allow it to rest at room temperature for 3-4 hours.
- Look closely at the starter, discard immediately if your starter has mold, a pink/orange/red tinge, or smells musty, as these can be signs of contamination, so I don't recommend trying to revive it.
- If the starter passes the test, stir in the hooch, or pour it off. I prefer to stir it back in, but it can be poured off too.
- In a clean jar or container, mix 50g of the unfed starter with 50g warm water, stir until combined, then add in 50g flour.
- Set aside the fed starter for 12 hours, then feed it again using a fresh clean jar, combine 50g starter, 50g water and 50g flour. Mark the side of your jar with the height of the starter.
- Watch the starter for signs of activity. It may be a little bit sluggish, but you should start to see a few bubbles here and there.
- If the starter is close to doubling within 12 hours, wait 24 hours before feeding again. If the starter is not close to doubling within 12 hours, feed it again 12 hours after the initial feed- and repeat until the starter doubles within 12 hours, then reduce to a once every 24 hour feeding period.
- Once the starter is revived and doubling regularly, it should be maintained on the counter and fed every 24 hours for 4-5 days. This will help get your starter healthy again before it's placed back in the fridge.
- Feed your starter weekly or bi-weekly once it's in the fridge to keep it healthy and active.
Video
Notes
How Do I Know If My Starter Is Ready To Bake With?
- It rises predictably after feeding
- It at least doubles within the expected timeframe for your feeding ratio and temperature
- It has bubbles throughout, not just on the surface
- It develops a domed top
- It smells pleasantly fermented
- It can repeat that same performance after consecutive feedings.
Expert Tips
- Don’t panic, feed it. A neglected starter can look rough after a long fridge nap, but ugly doesn’t mean dead. If there’s no mold or obvious contamination, give that fermenty baby some fresh flour, water, and a little time. There’s a very good chance you’ll be back to baking before you know it.
- Give it the once over. Before you start feeding, take a critical look at your starter. Hooch, separation, a strong fermented smell and generally sad appearance can all happen when a starter has been neglected. Mold or obvious spoilage is a different story. If something looks genuinely off, check my guide to figure out if your sourdough starter has gone bad and know when it’s time to let go.
- Stick with the usual. Try to feed your starter with the flour it was raised on. I like to keep it familiar when waking up sourdough starter. If you’ve always fed it bread flour, keep feeding it bread flour. The same goes for whole wheat, whole grain, all purpose, rye flour, or gluten-free. No need for a surprise party when your starter is already having a rough day.
- Mark the jar. Don’t always trust your eyes to tell you if your starter rose 25, 50 or 100%. A rubber band, a piece of tape, a hair tie, or a dry erase marker can make the rise much easier to track.
Love this and I feel it’s working!!! When it is doing the thing and raising every 12 hours I am ready to leave it in the counter for 4-5 days and feed it:) when I do this do I still empty out until I only have 50 grams of everything or do I feed it adding to what’s already in the jar? Does that make sense?;) thank you!!!
Hey Andee, I usually discard down to 50g, but you’re welcome to discard down to whatever quantity of starter you’d like! If you keep all that’s in the jar you’ll need to feed to 150 g water and 150g flour, and then 24 hours later you’d need to feed it 450g water and 450g flour. It grows exponentially, so it’s really important to discard!
Hi,
Thanks for your really helpful comments a couple of years ago. Here I am once again reviving a sad starter! I’ve done the adding of 50 water/50 flour to 50 old starter, got it bubbling, done the 50/50/50 routine another two times and it’s looking lively but is sinking (i.e looking like it’s tired as opposed to be still bubbling up in a dome shape) after 8-10 hours, so I’m wondering how often to feed, and when will it be ready to use to make a starter to bake with?
Thanks,
Sally
Hey Sally! Sorry for the delay – was on summer vacation with my kids. How are things going with your starter?
I had starter in the fridge for almost a year! I thought it was done for until I found this page! It is now doubling and I am going to dehydrate some, as well as get a loaf in the oven! Thanks so much for all the great details and directions on reviving my starter!
Yay! Happy to hear this!
can you use like 40 water 40 sour dough and 40 flour. I don’t have 50 g of sourdough starter that I need to revive. Is this OK?
Martha Mc
Absolutely!
Can I use the discard from the first feed of starting to revive my starter? For discard recipes or do I just need to throw it out? it was only in the fridge for a few weeks but it was a fairly new starter (only 2 months old).
I usually don’t only because its so sour, but if you want to, I can’t see it being a problem!
I left my sourdough starter in the back of my fridge for 6 months, followed the instructions word for word and John Dough is back in action 🤣🤣
Heck Ya John Dough! Happy to hear!
As soon as you said John and back in action I was thinking of a bad-ass sourdough starter like John McClane from Die Hard lol
My covid lockdown sourdough starter was in the back of the fridge for 5 years! Followed your directions, it took about a week, and it’s happy and bubbly. Thank you!
YAY!! That’s awesome to hear Lise!
My sourdough starter sat in my fridge for a year, unattended. I followed your instructions and it took 3 days and that baby came right back. I am excited to get to baking. Thank you so much for your simple to follow directions. Now that fall is here in Alaska, my oven is gonna get busy. Have a blessed day. 10/11/2025. Mrs.Vickie
Happy to hear that! Have a great baking season!
Thanks for this article. I’m on day 5 trying to revive a starter someone gave me 3 months ago! Yesterday I finally got it to double but today it’s only 1/3 higher again🤦🏻♀️. What am I doing wrong?
Hey Sarah, you’re not doing anything wrong! If it’s gone up by a third I would try giving it 24 hours after your next feed to see if you can get a full rise out of it!
I took my starter out of the fridge … it was good … without thinking … I added flout to it and water in the same jar before discarding any .. what should I do now ?
Nothing wrong at all, just keep feeding it, and it will be just fine!
Getting ready to transition to 24 hour feeding. Do I need to discard any or do I just add more flour and water? Thanks!
Yes, you’ll always discard – it helps to keep your starter size manageable.
I used your steps to revive a starter using discard from the back of my fridge. I tried using my normal starter but it never took. I got it to double after doing the 50/50/50 thing twice. Now I’m on the feed it for several days step, so I’ve kept it on the counter and have added a little water and flour onto days to feed it. I haven’t been discarding any because I didn’t know how much to discard and how much to keep…and now it seems sluggish again. I want more starter than the 50-50-50 ratio will yield. I want to be able to make a double batch whenever I want. So how do I successfully keep my starter active but also build the amount of starter I have so I can always have enough?
Hey Lisa, the reason it seems sluggish is probably cause it’s not being fed enough.
You can bulk up your starter easily by keeping 100 grams of it, then feeding it 100g water and 100g flour, or keep all 150g and then feed it 150g water and 150g flour. You can even keep 50g starter and feed it 100g water and 100g flour (or 150g water and 150g flour), it will just take a little longer to activate. The amount doesn’t matter, just the ratio of water to flour (1:1). This will keep your starter at a 100% hydration level for baking.
I usually just keep 50g feeds when I’m not actively baking to reduce waste and discard build up in the fridge, and when I know I want to bake the next day cause I have time, I will feed it to bulk it up, so discard to 50g, then feed it 150g water and 150g flour, this gives me 350g starter to work with the next day, which is more than enough for 2 loaves and remainder to keep it going. Hope that helps!