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'We Call It The Monster': The Story Behind This 65-Year-Old Sourdough
A 65-year-old beast is growing ever fatter in the back of Hobbs House Bakery.
The decades-old sourdough starter – affectionately nicknamed ‘The Monster’ – has been passed down through generations of bakers in the Cotswolds, who diligently feed it water and flour every day.
It’s long outgrown its original Kilner jar – The Monster now resides in two giant vats, with its bubbling belly swelling over the sides.
“It’s not a delicious smell, like fresh bread baking. I’d say it’s more of a... err... an interesting smell,” laughs Anna Herbert, who runs the family business alongside her brother-in-laws, uncle and father-in-law. “It’s kind of intense and tangy!”
The Herbert family have been baking bread for 100 years and have shops in the Cotswolds and Bristol. But like all good fables, there’s a few variations to The Monster’s origin story.
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In one version of the story, Grandpa Herbert was given the starter culture during a trip to Germany by a baker who said it was at least 30 years old at the time. That was in 1985.
In another version of the tale, a baker who had retired to the local town of Tetbury gifted the family his yeasty concoction. This baker – also German – is said to have brought it over from Germany after the Second World war.
Either way, the family acquired the starter 35 years ago and believe it was at least 30 years old at the time – possibly, much older. They’ve cared for it since, like a much-loved family pet, even throwing The Monster its own party for its 60th and 65th birthday.
It means the bakery is among the best in the biz, when it comes to having a really old, consistently used live starter. But they haven’t got the crown for Britain’s oldest starter – no one officially has, with starter stories being so hard to validate. Still,...
