"no" > wrote in message t...

> Every few years I take a pinch of one of the several Carl's baggies I've
> collected and make a working starter. For a few batches is's great: rise
> time, including sponge, first rise, and final rise total about 24 hours.
> The flavor and texture is everything I could want. Without fail, though,
> within a few weeks it evolves into a fast-rising, bland tasting starter
> that's not much better than commercial yeast. I want to coax out my
> starter's inner Carl, if it's still there.

A dry start is good for a while, like weeks, maybe months. Conceivably,
it may be revived with difficulty after the passage of years. Carl's starts
are intended to be used at once, not stored for years. Refreshed starter,
ready for breadmaking, is not very sour at all.

> I've been reading lately that it may be possible to encourage the desired
> bacteria components of the starter by cycling it at approximately 85
> degrees. I've been doing that for about a week with little or no
> improvement but plan to keep at it. I wonder if someone here hase some
> experience with seletive starter breeding. Alternately, maybe someone has
> an idea about how to keep Carl's Carl's if I decided to start over.

One can get a new Carl's start by sending a SASE to the right place. But,
from your words, it would appear that Carl's is not what you want. Carl
did not intend for people to eat his starter, or that it be sour. The intent is
that the bread made from it can, if desired, be made to be sour.

Culturing at temperature over 90°F. causes the lactobacteria to drop out.
Please see http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/64/7/2616. I see no reason
to do that. Sour loaves can be made from starter cultured at room
temperature. Sour bricks are made from sour starter. It takes a while
for the nOObies to find out how to sustain a long enough rise for sourness
to develop, and to learn that ready starter is not sour starter..

--
Dicky