why is my starter not rising?

Question

I had sourdough starter that I dehydrated and put in a hermetic glass container for a year and when I tried reactivating it, it would slightly bubble but never rise. I've tried repeatedly -- what am I doing wrong? Should I use different flour? The dehydrated starter smells acetic so I'm not sure why it's not rising for me to make the great fluffy loaves I made last year before I stored it away. Please help! Thank you :)

Sastephanie · Answer

Thanks @lori t! I’ll have to check out that article… it’s probably the way I originally dried the starter… thanks for your help :)

Lori T. · Answer

I'd recommend you check out the King Arthur article on the internet regarding drying and reviving a sour dough starter.  There could be any number of reasons why you are running into trouble with it, starting from the way it was dried to how your revival feeding schedule should progress.  I do know that you can't simply rehydrate a starter and pick up baking with it immediately, and you do have to feed it up a bit first.  So that might be the hitch, if that's what you were thinking.

why is my starter not rising?

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