My sourdough starter went moldy after 6 months of care in Chicago

I had been feeding my starter every day since January and it was PERFECT for bread until I left it on the counter during a heatwave last week and came back to green fuzz. I tried scraping off the mold and feeding it again but it smelled like acetone and looked wrong. Has anyone successfully saved a starter after mold or should I just start over from scratch?

3 comments

3 Comments

stone.lisa23d ago

Starting over is your only safe option here. Once you see green fuzz, that mold has roots going deep into the starter that you can't see or scrape off. The acetone smell means the bad bacteria took over and your yeast is dead. I know it hurts to toss six months of work, but trying to save a moldy starter can make you sick. You can salvage a tiny bit of the discard if it was stored separate, but the main jar is done. What feeding schedule were you using before the heatwave hit?

jana_jones23d ago

stone.lisa six months of work gone? I would cry tbh.

the_lisa23d ago

Stone.lisa is right about the mold roots, they just spread deeper than you'd think. It's like that patch of crabgrass in your yard that looks small on top but has this massive underground system you can never fully pull out. Starting fresh sucks but your health is worth more than any starter.