Don Hellen wrote:
>
> On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 01:45:11 -0600, Samartha Deva
> > wrote:
>
> >> IOW, if a starter is really dead, how can it be rejuvinated by any
> >> means?
> >
> >It can, you just read the right book or web site and it works.
>
> This is an old thread, but I just remembered something that
> backs up Samartha's claim.

Well, this was not really a "claim" - it was meant as a parody.

Because....

if you don't sterilize your flour 100 %, anything goes, if you know what
I mean.

And - to sterilize flour 100 % - I mentioned this x times with Ed Wood's
radiation story, tons of rads are needed. Also, I found another instance
where scientists needed some sterile flour to check something out:

""
The experiment was designed to investigate how anaerobic high moisture
storage affects the content of ß-glucan and extract viscosity of barley.
Barley was either irradiated with Cobalt 60 (10 kGray) to sterilize the
grain, or steamed for 10 min and kept at 105°C for 20 min to inactivate
enzymes and sterilize the grain.
""

So - pretty similar to Ed Woods experience and who does that when trying
to "catch" - if not radiation, then steaming and boiling for 1/2 hour?

Also, with an old, presumably dead starter - the organisms may be dead
but their inheritance - acids, alcohol, antibiotics are still there in
that old starter soup, so any newly introduced organisms are immediately
filtered through that screen which is, by the way a rather nasty growing
environment.

>
> There was a shipwreck that had some beer that was about 100
> years old.
>
> Someone cultured yeast from the bottle and showed that there
> was still some viable yeast even after all that time!

If it's true, it shows that the micro beings can be pretty hardy.

Yehdilediduh

Samartha

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