I'm using a sourdough starter from the recipe in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and I have gone through several of the rebuilding cycles with it. It's been working fairly well for me and I have been refreshing it every week. It is stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
How long can the starter be left in the fridge without being refreshed before it's un-salvageable and would need to be thrown out?
The following is paraphrased from Andrew Whitley's excellent book Bread Matters
Wheat leaven
Rye sourdough
Whitley describes "constructive neglect". He keeps a rye sourdough in his fridge that's several months old, so that he can demonstrate to students how easily he can take 50g of it and produce a lovely sourdough from it within 16 hours.
It's a great book.
I've had mine sit for six months or more without feeding and still have life in it.
Don't use such an old one for bread though. Do a thorough wash of it first. Otherwise it'll taste like poop in a gym sock.
It should last for a couple of weeks without feeding. You should feed it at least twice before using it again though. Probably the safest thing to do is take a little of the starter and use it as an experiment; keep one bit for a week without feeding and see if it works, and another bit for two, etc.
In the fall, I made about five loaves of sour dough bread with a starter a friend gave me. Over the holidays, the starter was in the fridge for about five weeks without my using it. Then, after feeding it twice, it seemed to be back to normal and I made a standard sour dough white bread. It rose beautifully and looked great. However, it did not taste great. It was not bad, but nothing special. I'll make another loaf soon and see what happens. AL
According to thejoykitchen.com , it can go at least a month. I have had excess starter that I made in the refrigerator now for 4 weeks, took some of it out, stirred in the 'hootch' on top, lightly fed it some very thick 'dinner'...(nearly as thick flour to water ratio as I could mix together and still have it look like an extremely way too thick pancake batter), and put it back into the fridge. It bubbled slightly, but not enough to overflow the container.
I have also read that even at some months, it is still totally salvageable, though I have yet to try it. I will be testing my starters saved in different containers in the fridge to verify what to do when. You can also dry your starter, and I have ordered parchment paper to do this on. Hope that helps.
