March 19, 2016 - 7:35am
feeding slow rising levain
my levain that I've had for a number of years is slow to rise when feeding.
my normal feed is a 1/4c ap and 1/4c water @ 95° F or so.
I've stepped back to multiple feeds closer together of 2 tbsp ap and 2 tbsp water.
It use to double in a couple hours. Now it takes 8 or more.
any suggestions?
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more flour. Equal volumes are not equal weights. Water weighs about twice as much as flour does so if the water is 1/4 c the flour should be close to 1/2 cup for 100% hydration. Yours is let's see .25 x (weight of one cup of water or) 240g = 60g water and the same in flour... .25 x 125g = 31.25g flour
To get hydration one takes the water weight and divides it by the flour weight and multiplies with 100 to get % of water.
60/31.25 = 1.92 x 100 (moves the decimal over two places) to a whopping 192% hydration!!!
No wonder it won't rise, it's practically flavoured water. Must be pretty runny stuff. :) It shouldn't be rising much at all.
nope, very thick. like home made peanut butter, that's the odd thing. but I'll try changing the ratio.
have with starters is using equal amounts of flour and water by volume rather than weight. You starter will instantly rise as it should feeding like Min/ says
"Milkshake thick" is the guide I use.
oh, it's definitely at least milkshake thick.
mmmmm, I could use a island burgers and shakes on ninth ave malted shake right now. mmmm mmmm mmm
try letting it sit out overnight on the countertop so the chlorine can dissipate. Then microwave for a few seconds to get back up to your 95F temperature. Otherwise try distilled/bottled/filtered etc.
The water where I live is extremely hard and heavily chlorinated. My starter activity is night and day different between tap water and distilled water.
hmmm, chlorine level in t eh water is the same as its ever been (according to the water authority).
no microwave. I'll try adjusting the feed ratio
adjusted the feed ratio and even set it in the oven with only the light on.
nada. guess I'll try feeding it more of both ap and water.
I'm at a loss.
you fed it before putting it in the oven
on. My oven has dual lights and the temperature hits 116f in there with the door closed. I think that is too high to make any sourdough starter happy. I have to crack the door open by wedging a wooden spoon at the top to get it in the mid 80s.
The new oven has a halogen bulb instead of incandescent so who knows what temp its gets to.
We have halogen lights in our bathroom and they seem to get a fair bit hotter than incandescent lights and a google search confirms this. You might have to open the door wider.
light off! It's insulated so it stays cooler - same with the dish washer:-)
ours doesn't hit 100°. I dunno what's going on, but the levain is
s
l
o
w
to rise.
This morning I halved what I was working with then fed that by weight at 100% hyd.
my levain could find no love no matter what I tried. I used that batch in some waffles which were tangy.
I went back to the mother levain and took a couple tbsp in a jar and fed that a couple tablespoons AP and tap hot water.
Waited 8 or 12 hours, halved and fed again. And again the other day. Now it's growing at a respectable rate again, 3 hours to double, and it's thicker than a thick shake, close to home ground peanut butter.
I think the other batch just got poisoned by something.
and away we go.
something like this
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/messages/view/7715