Product
Sourdough Starter Rescue
For the home baker whose sourdough starter is on day 7, is not rising, smells like nail polish remover, or just produced a brick instead of a loaf. Tell the tool days since last feed, days since created, flour type, feeding ratio, ambient kitchen temperature, water type, container type, visible symptoms (hooch layer, bubble pattern, smell, mold), and whether it has risen before. One structured pass returns a rescue card: ranked diagnoses (false rise, lag phase, overfed, underfed, hooch and hungry, too cold, chlorinated water, contaminated, dead) with plain-English explanations, the exact next three feeds in grams and ratios with timing, a pivot rule for feed 3, and a bake-day float-test go/no-go with pass criteria. Hard refusals fire for fuzzy or pink or orange or blue or green mold (discard the starter and container), gluten-free flours (route to a GF guide), and non-wheat-non-rye flours.
About this tool
What does sourdough starter rescue do?
For the home baker whose sourdough starter is on day 7, is not rising, smells like nail polish remover, or just produced a brick instead of a loaf. Tell the tool days since last feed, days since created, flour type, feeding ratio, ambient kitchen temperature, water type, container type, visible symptoms (hooch layer, bubble pattern, smell, mold), and whether it has risen before. One structured pass returns a rescue card: ranked diagnoses (false rise, lag phase, overfed, underfed, hooch and hungry, too cold, chlorinated water, contaminated, dead) with plain-English explanations, the exact next three feeds in grams and ratios with timing, a pivot rule for feed 3, and a bake-day float-test go/no-go with pass criteria. Hard refusals fire for fuzzy or pink or orange or blue or green mold (discard the starter and container), gluten-free flours (route to a GF guide), and non-wheat-non-rye flours.
Why does my sourdough starter smell like nail polish remover?
Acetone or nail polish remover smell is the signature of a hungry starter that has eaten through its flour and is producing alcohol byproducts. Your yeast is alive and working, it just needs food. Discard down to 50g, then add 50g flour and 50g water at a 1:1:1 ratio, and the smell fades within one or two feeds. If the smell returns inside 12 hours at normal room temperature, your feeding window is too wide, so feed twice a day instead.
What is hooch on a sourdough starter and should I pour it off or stir it in?
Hooch is the layer of liquid alcohol that rises to the top when your starter runs out of food. Clear or straw-colored hooch means your starter is hungry but healthy, so stir it back in before the next feed for more flavor and acidity. Pour it off only when it is dark brown and bitter, which signals a longer neglect window and off-flavors you do not want in the loaf. Do not pour hooch down the drain and then feed on an empty jar, you are removing the acids that protect the culture from unwanted bacteria.
My day-7 sourdough starter is not rising, what do I do?
Day 7 with no rise usually means lag phase rather than a dead starter. The first few days see a bacteria bloom that fades, and the wild yeast population takes another three to seven days to catch up. Pivot to 50g whole wheat or whole rye flour at a 1:1:1 ratio, keep the jar at 75 to 78 F, and feed every 24 hours. Most home starters bubble by day 10 to 14 on this schedule.
Can I save a sourdough starter with pink or orange mold on top?
No, discard the entire starter and wash the jar in a hot dishwasher cycle before reusing it. Fuzzy pink, orange, blue, or green growth is mold contamination that baking does not kill. The one exception is a non-fuzzy pink tinge on a whole rye starter, which can be a false positive from the anthocyanin pigments in rye flour, but if the pink is fuzzy or raised, discard regardless. Start fresh with 50g whole rye and 50g dechlorinated water in a clean jar.
Why is a gluten-free sourdough starter different from a wheat one?
Gluten-free starters run at higher hydration (typically 100 to 125 percent water to flour), feed at 1:2:2 ratios instead of 1:1:1, and foam more than they rise in volume because there is no gluten network to hold the gas. A float test will fail on a healthy GF starter, so you watch for peak-and-fall timing instead. Different grain blends (sorghum, buckwheat, oat, rice) behave differently from each other, so a GF-specific primer like The Loopy Whisk or Minimalist Baker is the right starting place rather than a wheat-starter plan.
What does it cost?
From 15 tokens. Pick a tier on the form above. Produde tokens are a prepaid platform credit; buy them once and spend on any tool.
Do I pay if a run doesn't complete?
No. You only pay for results. If a run can't finish, its full token cost stays in your wallet automatically.
Is my data stored?
Your input and the run output are saved to your account so you can browse history. They are not sold, shared with advertisers, or used to train shared models. See privacy for details.