The Fresh Loaf

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whole wheat starter

sunnspot9's picture

Does changing the hydration level "upset" the WW starter?

January 14, 2013 - 11:13pm -- sunnspot9

Hello all,

I finally got a scale! So I started measuring my feedings instead of just eyeballing it, and the starters have gone all wonky, one smells very acidic, like vinegar, burns my nose, the other is musky unpleasant smelling.

After receiving the scale I started measuring 100% hydration, this is much drier than what I was eyeballing, after some fiddling I think my eyeball method was about 135% hydration, I would use about 1/8c starter, 1/4c water and add flour till it seemed thick enough.

jennyloh's picture
jennyloh

I think I'm being ambitious here.  Building starters, and started with 3.  Actually no,  I didn't start with 3.  I started with 1 full rye.  50g/50g,  following by a 1:1 ratio and then 1:1:1 ratio by the 3rd day.  I realised too late that I was going to build a giant and alot of wastage. I decided to split them into 3.  

I wonder if they are ready or I should just go on feeding them? Looking for advice.

 

Rye Starter - Day 5 without refreshment yet.

I took out about 160g from this rye starter and then added 50g/50g.  I think I should have thrown out more.  It's not as bubbly as the one that I added whole wheat.

 

Starter 2:  Added White flour - Day 5 without refreshment (using Dan Lepard's % of white leaven formula)

80g of initial rye starter/100g white/80g water

It's more bubbly and seems to have tripled.  Is this ready?

 

Mother Starter (Peter Reinhart)

I actually read wrongly and used Reinhart's formula on the 4th day.  But it's also very bubbly.  Should I continue with this formula to create the mother starter as per Reinhart's formula?

80g rye starter/60g whole wheat/20g water

 

Looking for suggestions and advices.

soleilnyc's picture

Whole Wheat Starter: Pros and Cons?

November 18, 2009 - 8:21am -- soleilnyc

Hi again! 

It's me, the newbie that experienced existential angst over Carl's starter a couple of months ago :)

The starter, fed with AP, was doing pretty well and made a great loaf of JMonkey's 100% WW bread.  Then I realized that I had cut out most refined (read:white) products out of my life and had been trying to eat only whole grains, so I decided to convert my starter into WW. (30g starter:30g WW:30g water)

lungalux's picture

how long can i keep a whole wheat starter?

July 30, 2008 - 2:44pm -- lungalux

hi there, i have a starter that i "started" with AP flour and worked great - i kept feeding it and it lasted for 2 months or so. then i decided to make it a whole wheat starter so i started using WW flour instead of AP for the feedings.  even though i covered it while on the counter w/ saran wrap a fruit fly or two still managed to get in there (which didn't happen w/ the AP starter).

so i put it in the fridge, and it's been in there sleeping for almost a month.  should i toss it or do you think i can revive it?

 thanks for any help you can offer.

 

CBudelier's picture

whole wheat starter question

February 22, 2007 - 7:28am -- CBudelier

I recently converted part of my white flour starter to whole wheat, and it seemed to be doing just fine. I'm trying to increase it to make JMonkey's whole wheat bread, which requires a lot of starter. I had 200 g. of starter, so I fed it 200 g. of water and 400 g of wheat flour hoping to double the bulk. It made a nice firm dough ball, so I figured the proportions were right. After 12 hours it isn't doing much of anything at all. My questions are: 1) do I add a bit more water to see if that perks it up?

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