is my sourdough trash?

[NoTiGG]

hey all... i made some sourdough starter with some gluten free flours. everything went well.. it got a nice yeasty smell to it. it rose. I followed the directions and fed it for maybe 5 days. afterwards I put it in the fridge. now a couple of weeks later there is this what looks like mold above the sourdough starter.

is the starter underneath okay or should I scrap it?

did i do something wrong.. are you supposed to take it out and feed it once a week or something?

[dogmom327]

My experience with the gluten-free starter is a bit limited, but with the brown rice starter I've worked with, it definitely needed to be fed once a week and when I forgot, it grew mold. The gluten-based starters are a great deal more forgiving.

Hopefully you'll get more responses though!

[JMJ]

Again no experience here with gluten free, but feeding every 12 hours on the counter or week in the fridge is a good rule of thumb for most starters. If your starter is only 3 weeks old, I would scrap it and start over. If it were a more well established starter, you could probably scrape off the top and find healthy starter underneath, but with a starter so young, the risks are too high, and it's not like you're loosing a 100 year old starter with a distinct flavor.

Start over. Keep it on the counter at least a week, preferably two or even a month. The longer you leave it out and feed it often, the better established it will become and the more sour it will taste. Then stick it in the fridge and feed it or cook it (which involves feeding it) at least once a week. In a few months, your starter will be more able to survive trauma.

[NoTiGG]

good advice thanks everyone