[Prev: How do lactic bacteria affect sourdough bread? | Next: How can I determine the proportion of flour in my starter? ] Created 3/30/96 by darrell.web4 (at) telus.net (Darrell Greenwood)

What is hooch? Refrigerator hooch? What do I do with it?

Hooch and refrigerator hooch are the same thing.

When the starter goes quiet (this tends to happen faster in the refrigerator, whence 'refrigerator hooch') the mixture separates. You have a layer of flour with miscellaneous yeast and bacteria and a layer of water with a touch of alcohol (whence 'hooch') and other fermentation byproducts.

You mix the hooch in with the layer of flour when you feed your starter otherwise you will change the water:flour ratio of your starter.

A better way, in my opinion, to restart an old hooch layered starter is to use a tablespoonful of the old starter to get another flour and water mixture going as a new starter. You can get a healthier starter faster that way.

-Darrell

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This page was last updated on Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 7:52:57 PM.

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