Shoutout to the guy who saved my sourdough starter with a beer

Had a starter that went totally dormant. Two weeks of feeding, nothing. Guy at the farmers market in Portland said toss in some unfiltered IPA. Did it. Next morning it was bubbling like crazy. Weirdest fix ever. Anyone else had a random save like that?

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roberts.troy1mo ago

Tossed a splash of pickle brine into a dead bagel dough once. Totally forgot about it overnight, woke up to a sticky, fizzy mess that somehow baked into the most amazing jalapeno cheddar bagels I've ever made. That IPA trick is solid though, the wild yeast in unfiltered beer is basically a miracle worker for sad starters. I've seen people use pineapple juice too, but that feels way too risky for my taste. Sometimes you gotta get weird with it, fermentation loves a little chaos.