Changing the flavor of starter
My starter died when I went on a trip (forgot to refrigerate it), so I requested more granules from Carl Griffith's friends and began again.
My new batch of starter tastes like a flat tone—just one treble not, and certainly no bass. That probably sounds like nonsense, but I can't think of a culinary description.
It's usually fed Brita water and unbleached all-purpose flour; occasionally I use rye, organic whole wheat, "white" wheat, and even potato flour (old stock kept in the fridge for a year, so there may not be any live cultures left). After six weeks, it still doesn't taste as interesting as my old starter.
I just thought of the word to describe it: Insipid.
How can I get it to develop more flavor, or does it simply take longer than six weeks for starter to reach its potential?
Janet
LAB and yeast to develop a deep and well rounded flavor profile is to use mineral spring water and bran found in whole grains for food. The trace minerals in both allow the wee beasties to work their best magic.
The other thing thing to remember is that not all wee beasties are the same. Making a starter is easy and near fool proof. I would start my own starter using half whole rye and half whole wheat at 78 F. 30 g of flour to 25 g of water and then the same amount added 24 hours later. Then toss half and feed the same again 2 more times again 24 hours apart. In 4 days you have a new starter with different wee beasties that will give you a totally different and more robust flavor.
You can then decide of ypou want to mix the two together or not. Good luck
The flavor and odor of my starter varies, and I'm not sure I've ever found a relationship between the taste of the starter and the taste of the bread. Sour starter vs bland starter end up producing similar breads for me. If I want the end product to taste a certain way, the first thing I would change is the temperature during fermentation. This is speaking from limited, non-professional experience, but I do get pretty good bread consistently.