October 7, 2015 - 8:46am
Rye starter smells vinegary
Hi there,
This is the first time I am posting and wanted a little advice. I have recently been entrusted with some starters, a rye, plain, and I have made my own gluten free.
When they were handed over I was told they were a 100% hydration starters, so I should use the ration 2:1:1. At the moment. I was also recommended to leave them in a cupboard. I was feeding them once a day, and the rye has startered to smell a little vinegary, it still has lots of bubbles on the sides, but not so much on the top. I wondered if this was normal and if not how best to rectify the situation.
The other two seem to be acting ok, and no pungent smells as yet, although could also perhaps be more bubbly ontop.
Any advice much appreciated
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and fastest to ferment but the ratios are way too low in my opinion. a 1:2:2 (starter:water:flour) rye feeding (with my starter) would be good for 4 to 6 hrs at 23°C. The temperature will make a difference as the warmer the starter, the faster it ferments and goes thru flour food.
What is the temperature in the cupboard?
Vinegar sounds like starving for food. Fruity is good and yeasty is good but when you see the rising mass of starter stop rising, flatten out and sinking in the middle, time to reduce the size and feed again. A fed starter smells closer to wet flour and aromas strengthen with fermentation.
Unless you're baking bread every day then I'd suggest keeping them in the fridge. They'll not need daily feeding then. (And just to confuse things, I do bake every day but my starters still live in the fridge).
My rye starter is at 150% - ie. 1.5 times the water to flour, so when I need 500g of rye starter, I take 250g from the jar, then add 100g of flour and 150g of water, mix and leave for a few hours (and put the same in the jar and put it back in the fridge)
My wheat and spelt starters are at 100% and I use one part starter to 2 water and 2 flour to maintain 100% - e.g. if I needed 500g then I'd take 100g from the jar, add 200g flour and 200g water giving me 500g in total. Then I'd put 50g flour and 50g water back into the jar then back into the fridge..
However there are dozens and dozens of ways to maintain starters and mix them - the above is what works for me baking sourdough breads daily (doing the microbakery thing)
Oh and your rye starter sounds fine. just give it a stir and feed it.
-Gordon
Hi Drogon and Mini Oven, thank you both so much for you comments, it is much appreciated. The more a read the more a realise how easy and yet remarkbly complex both rye and sourdough can be.
@minioven my flat is about 23 degrees I would say, it's fairly warm here at the moment, although ahve been leaving the window open to cool it down a little. I think you were right about the under feeding as well, I managed to bring it back to a sweeter fermentation smell by doing 8-12 hour feeds (have work so can't do it more frequently).
I haven't charged the ratios yet, as I am using the starter to make rye crumpets and I didn't want it to affect the consistency. Although having said that, I have been having rising issues with the rye, as they turn out very dense in the middle.
Do you think a looser starter might help make the crumpet more springy?
Better feedings like Mini said. Makes for a healthier starter.
And keeping them in the fridge so you aren't slave to them like Drogon said.
Feed them well, allow them to bubble up by half then refrigerate them.
When it comes to using them just take a little off each time to build with. But before you put the rye one in the fridge keep that out for a little while longer and feed well so you bring it back to good health.
Yup, am in the process now of rehabilitating the starters and then will put them in the fridge. I will only be using them every 3rd day so like you say I won't be a slave.