Sourdough starter woes
A couple months ago my fridge defrost timer went out and my the temp slowly started rising. When I finally realized what was going on my sourdough starter that I captured like 8 years ago was dead. I tried for weeks to revive it to no avail. And I had this starter down. The timing of when to build, how long to proof all that. So I bought some pineapple juice and started another one. I got it going and it just doesn't rise really well. So out of absolute frustration I ordered a fresh starter from KAF. The only problem is the bread has no where near the keeping qualities that my old sourdough bread had. Does anyone have any ideas. Should I try and start a new one? Has anyone ordered one from Sourdough International? This has become very frustrating to say the least. Thanks for any ideas!
Jani
be in any SD starter and most are due to where the grain was grown and what kind of flour. Each has its own characteristics. It takes about 4 week for a new starter to start really revealing itself. They are so easy to make I just tell people if you don't like what you have, just make a new one with a different flour until you like what you have.
Dabrownman is right, it will take about 4 weeks before a new starter is mature. Usually, if you start with whole grain flour, the process is faster. Do not add yeast from another source in the hopes that it will start faster, that will just delay the starter reaching its proper mix of yeast and bacteria. Once you get the mature starter, dry some of it at room temperature and store it for the time that an unexpected accident happens and you lose the wet starter.
Ford
I agreee with the others and encourage you to stay independent of other sources. Besides the yeasts floating in your kitchen like it there! After a few disappointments in the beginning I found my final starter recipe jumps off the bench with excitement! It is 100% hydration with 100 ml water 70 gm bread flour and 30 gm rye. The rye seems to really get it going! Good luck!!!
Thank you everyone. Ok, I will persist with the one I grew. The KAF one doesn't have any flavor either.
I got the one I started out yesterday and have 200 g feeding and will try making some dough tonight. Fingers crossed.
In my experience, one of the biggest barriers to getting a new starter to 1) rise quickly, and 2) produce good flavor, is that we tend to overfed our starters while they are developing. Try UNDERFEEDING your starter for two days. Instead of discarding half, and replacing with equal weight of flour/water, try not discarding any, and just add about 25% (by weight) of flour/water. You'll find that your starter becomes much more aggressive. The PH change that results from the retention of more of the old starter will also tend to select for yeast/bacteria that favor a more acidic (sour) starter.
This sounds like good advice. Thank you! I remember doing this one time - in lieu of the usual discard and feed with a 1:1:1 ratio, I merely added more food and water to the starter. It doubled quickly after that.
My current starter is giving me problems, though. It has a tart flavor already, but it hasn't been doubling in volume. I got a paltry 50% rise in 12 hours after the last feeding. I'm on Day 12 of this starter, following Debra Wink's Pineapple Juice protocol. It is in room temperature, with a short rest in the refrigerator. (I decided to discontinue one line and I reverted back to my stored back-up.) Temperature range is from low 80's to low 90's. I used to feed with a bit of whole wheat flour, but currently, I am feeding with pure all-purpose unbleached flour to simplify things. The most I got recently was an 80% rise in 12 hours. Things have slowed down again for the past couple of days.
I will try underfeeding and see if that accelerates things. Thank you for the tip!
Jani
I am just new to this forum but thought I would share my sourdough experience with you. I made my first starter with great success this past April while my husband and I were wintering in Phoenix. It was a bubbly beautiful starter. I am not sure why I had such great success the first try but it was beautiful. We then travelled back home for a 5 day trek. I kept that starter cold while driving and at night I would feed it in my hotel room. That beast was coming home with me…..I was determined. So then we arrived home in Ontario, Canada to a very different climate and a gas stove vs electric stove. All of a sudden I could not bake nice bread. For about 2 weeks, I continued every day to try to bake a nice, well risen loaf and they were awful. I left my starter out on the counter and fed it daily sometimes twice daily. I am not at all precise when I feed the starter. It would bubble and I would think that it was ok but I wasn't getting nice bread for about 2 weeks. I really don't have an answer to why but it took 2 weeks of determination and my starter had to adjust to the new environment, the new yeasts and whatever. Once I got the starter nice again, I refrigerated a portion that I feed weekly but do not leave out. I have an additional one that I leave out and feed daily. The interesting part of these 2 starters that are from the same starter. The one left out is "sour" which we love and smells quite vinegary. The one in the fridge is not at all sour and doesn't have the same sour taste. There have been days that my starter has been neglected and days that it has 2 feedings. It continues to produce lovely bread every time. I wonder what would happen if you left your starter out and fed daily for 2-3 days?? Don't give up because I watched mine take 2 weeks to really get back into the groove.