In te very first few days is when the flour soup is the most susceptible to being overtaken by unwanted growth since no one is actually “in charge” yet. It may simply be some mould spores came in off the jar itself, just happen to settle in and take over. Not to worry. You did the right thing at this early stage to toss and start again – as opposed to tossing because there’s no (visible) activity which is what the pineapple juice method looks to avoid.

So boil some water and make sure all your equipment is very clean and start again. There’s no particular reason this process shouldn’t work for you. Seems you just picked up an unwanted hitchhiker along the way this time.

Sourdough base for pizza is not at all a “new” thing and in fact is how pizza – and most all leavened breads – originally were made before the advent of commercial yeast in the late 1800′s. That said, it may not be “new” but it certainly is “new again” as artisanal attitudes come back to bread everywhere.

You will not find sourdough crusts on the Big Chain pizzas, they are in it for fast turnaround and sourdough is a slow process (comparatively). If you want to find a sourdough based pizza, you will need to hunt up small one-off pizza places that are interested in making quality product, not pumping out volume. They will likely have Pizza Napoletana styles, either Margherita and/or Marinara variants, far from the typical overloaded style found in chain or even most mom-and-pop places.

Why? Because these types of pizza use much less toppings so they have to use better ingredients as they aren’t masked by sheer quantity. Also, the few toppings are there to enhance and balance with an exceptional crust as opposed to most pizza joints that use the crust merely as a vehicle to transport a load of toppings. Ergo, good dough is of prime importance and sourdough, when done correctly, is indeed good dough.

Margherita: tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil (note: no garlic or other spices)
(Margherita photo)

Marinara: tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (note: no cheese or other spices)
(Marinara photo)

You can find a LOT of info on pizza and its intricacies over at the PizzaMaking.com website where pizza enthusiasts of all levels gather to talk pizza. You can probably find a discussion, somewhere in their vast forum, where someone mentions a sourdough-based pizza purveyor in your area that you can visit.

Good luck!

hard to diagnose the issue without being able to see what you have. One thing you mich want to do is add a bit more flour so you have a slightly stiffer starter that can trap the bubbles. if its too wet, it won’t have the body to hold the bubbles and the gas just gently floats up and out. So add a little more flour (WW or whatever you prefer) just until you have a pancake batter like consistency. Keep in mind that a tablespoon of water plus a tablespoon of flour (or anytime you do equal VOLUME water and flour) is about 160% hydration which is pretty wet. If you do equal part water and flour BY WEIGHT, you’ll see a much stiffer end result. A decent alternative is to use 1 part water (volume) to 1.75 part flour which will get you closer to the “by weight” equivalent.

Give your new starter that bit more flour and also give it another day or so before deciding it’s gone off. The issue may be that your house is too cool – try to find a cozy spot for the starter, it will like about 75ºF (24ºC) so places like on top of the fridge (hot air from the coils in the back make that spot warmer), next to a machine that’s on all the time (TV, computer, etc.) by a table lamp you can keep on all day…

No you didn’t do any harm by not freezing the dry starter. It would help keep dry starter more viable over not freezing when looking at years of storage, not just a couple of days.

Thoughts:
-did I ruin the starter by not freezing it?
-did I do something else wrong and should maybe try again with a fresh portion of the dry start?

thanks!