Question: why is it that my yeast in my amish friendship bread doesn't keep rising after the first batch.
By: constance
Published: January 9, 2011

I made the starter mix for the amish bread recipe and the yeast rose fine in the first batch. the starter bag that i had left over from the first batch wouldn't rise at all for the new batch. Its cold here but i dont think that it should retard the yeast to where it stops my starter bag from fermenting. any ideas on why?

The amish friendship bread recipe is on my profile.

Answers:
Dr. Mitchell R....

Constance,
This is a big puzzle to me.  Friendship bread starter is usually quite hard to stop (kill).  Cold should slow it down, of course; that's why refrigerating a starter (like a sourdough starter) dramatically reduces the need to feed it.
I only know of two ways to kill a starter:  Too much heat, or no food.  Even freezing briefly shouldn't kill it.  The only other thing I can imagine is some compound that kills yeast.  Have you tried starting over?  I know that's a lot of lost work, but it would be nice to know if this is reproducible...