Hi Everyone.

I recently received my Carl's starter in the mail and I would like to use it to create a whole wheat starter.  The instructions to revive Carl's starter indicate to use all-purpose flour (here is a link to the instructions if you are interested, http://carlsfriends.net/revive.txt).  Please correct me if I am wrong, but what I have read on this forum is that whole wheat and all-purpose flour seem to need different amounts of water because of they way they absorb water.

What I am wondering is how should I adapt the instructions to create a 100% whole wheat starter?  Alternatively, is there a different procedure or instructions to create a 100% whole wheat starter from a dried starter originally cretaed using all-purpose flour?  I have searched through the old forum posts but I couldn't find anything that exactly laid out what to do (and I really don't want to do anything wrong!). Of course one of my options is to revive the starter using all-purpose flour, then convert it to whole wheat, but I thought that it might be better just to go straight to 100% whole wheat.

As you probably guessed, I am a beginner when it comes to bread making.  My interest is in making 100% whole wheat bread and I am really enjoying Reinhart's Whole Wheat and Sprouted Grain Bread recipe.  Now I would like to take that next step and try using a wild yeast starter.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Adrian

1. I see lots of people promoting Sourdough International's dry cultures on this forum; has anyone had any negative experiences with their cultures?
2. Has anyone had any luck with dried cultures from any other companies?

Candy_DaMilleri

I posted this yesterday in an on-going thread, but it apparently got overlooked, so I'll try again. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have a starter that originated from KAF that I have been maintaining for about 2 1/2 years, and right now it is right where I like it in terms of sourness, rising power, etc. So I decided to dry some of it, as a backup.

The drying went fine, and now I have a nice  pile of flakes. Any suggestions from those of you who have done this with regard to storing this little insurance policy? I'd be happy with a glass jar, a baggie, a baggie in a jar, etc -- in the fridge, the cupboard, the freezer?

What have other folks done that worked?

Many many months ago, in Austria far away, a sourdough starter was supplied from a baker, good and qualified. The Austrian starter was dried and traveled to China where part of it mixed and grew nurtured in the presence of Chinese all purpose flour and later with Austrian Rye flour. Sometimes it sat out to grow, sometimes it sat in a refrigerator, one time even froze but it lived long and prospered and provided many a loaf of bread. Then it was dried. This happened at various times in the last few months.