June 10, 2010 - 9:46pm
Sourdough starter smells like paint thinner
Well, it's day 6 of my first sourdough starter and this morning it smelled a bit like paint thinner. Actually is smelled like what they put in denatured alcohol to keep stupid kids and alcoholics from getting waisted on it; rather strongly in fact.
Should it do that?
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Try feeding it a bit more - either more often or more new food in proportion to what you have ehwn you feed. How much are you feeding in relation to what is there? Also what temp is it kept at?
:o
Typically, paint thinner is neither :)
It happens occasionally to new starters. You need to keep feeding it, usually the smell goes away within 3-4 days.
hi,
My dry Sourdough starter (which I bought) also smells very strongly of nail polish remover. It was going along fine but when I fed it, it began smelling very strongly!
I made my first batch of bread using (120g) almost half the 300g starter then fed the starter with 120g Rye Flour and 40mls water (3 parts flour 1 part water - very dry!) and left it in the fridge. A week later I fed it again with 75g flour and 25ml Water. Now it smells and has been for the past few days.
What should I be doing to get it back to good health (and smell!) ?
Thanks Heaps!
You have to do a daily routine and stay out of the fridge for a few days. Reduce the starter to 10g and increase the water to 40g and 40g rye flour. Refresh after 12 hours using only 10g starter. Discard the rest and change to a clean container with each refreshing. In a few days it will be back to normal. When it is back to normal smelling, then slowly decrease the water amounts (not all in one feeding) and then wait a few hours at warm room temperature before refrigerating. That gives the beasties a chance to build and protect themselves while you store them.
Mini
I left the starter out after feeding and now it dosen't smell bad anymore but it has white powder on the outside which could be some sort of mould???
mould if you are feeding it every 12 hours and cleaning the glass inbetween as well. What is your routine? The more detail the better so we can understand what is happening.
Mini
You might try taking some pictures for us!