June 5, 2018 - 9:37am
Convert Starter Hydration
Quick Question –
I had to starters going. One at 100% hydration and One at 80%.
Unfortunately, I accidentally ruined the 100% hydration starter.
For the original 100% hydration starter was using 50g of starter and feeding it 100g flour and 100g of water.
If I wanted to take 50g of my 80% hydration starter and convert it, what would the initial feeding of flour:water be to convert it to 100% before continuing as I was before?
Thanks!
Share
If you have an 80% hydration starter then take 18g to convert. This way you know you're starting off with 8g water and 10g flour. Now feed it with 2g more water than flour however big the feed is.
Then again if you just take a tsp of starter and begin a feeding schedule of equal amounts of water and flour by weight then that'll be fine too. It'll even out.
That makes it easier.
Do you think I should do a few feedings just using the 18g as the base and then eventually move it to the 50g?
So you want to end up with 250g starter @ 100% hydration. Fed and ready to go.
If you want one feeding then...
Wait for this to mature and then use. This is a big feed. You could just as easily do this....
Wait for it to mature and use. Still a big feed but not as big as the first way. Will take a tad quicker to mature. Just as good.
If you want to do two feedings and end up with the final feed as you described. Then you could do this...
This will give you 50g starter at 100% hydration. Then you can go onto the a second build of...
Thanks a lot for your help!
When starters ferment they lose a few grams in the process. About 5-10g. So you might wish to build a little extra to make up for this small loss.
My pleasure.