Rehydrated my starter from July 2019
Day three and and my almost 2 year old dehydrated starter has doubled! I just wanted to share my excitement. I followed King Arthur Flours' method for dehydrating it and then I almost followed their instructions for rehydrating it but accidentally skipped a step. The rye starter didn't seem to care though! I might be able to bake with this weekend. And I'll dehydrate some left over after a while to be on the safe side.
I started by taking out 5g of starter, then added 10 grams of water to soak. I let it sit until it was starting to break apart and stirred it frequently. Then I added 15g of water and 15g of rye flour and stirred. I left it until the next day. Then I discovered my oops. I was supposed to add 5g of rye after it was dissolved, then add 15g of rye and 15g of water. Well, it is doing well on day 3, so all is well so far. Fingers crossed for a bake this weekend!
Edit: I want to point out that I'm using reverse osmosis water. Our water has chloramine in it and I've had trouble starting a starter in the past because of it. I read that it does not bother a mature starter very much, but that it can make it very difficult for the yeasties to survive in the beginning. I will probably switch to regular water after a while to see if I notice a difference over time. Maybe a stiff starter to limit the tap water (and slow it down, it is quite warm here).
I've already decided my first bake will be the 1-2-3 Sourdough bread and if this thing doubles again in 2 hours I'll be baking with it Thursday! I can't wait!
You could call your revived starter "The Monster" as from the Frankenstein story! I would like to try your method of dehydrating my starter culture and then keep some in the safe deposit box.
I also applaud your judicious decision to use purified water vice tap water. When I joined this site a couple years back I read through around 12 years of archived posts and a significant portion of those posts dealt with starter woes. I suspect that use of "impure" tap water can also cause all sorts of starter problems including "selective" suppression of some bacteria in favor of other bacteria, resulting in unbalanced starter cultures. And poor starter performance.
Thanks for sharing and best wishes. Dave
Here's the link to the instructions I followed: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/05/01/putting-sourdough-starter-hold
I know there is something about it on the forums, but I think the King Arthur layout is easier (uncluttered) to read.
I keep my dehydrated starter in a plastic bag in a glass jar in my cabinet. Nothing fancy. I had to use the jar for something else at one point, hence the plastic bag.