Healthy culture suddenly not rising
I have a healthy sourdough culture I got started in April and that I've made several very successful breads from. However, it's suddenly stopped rising! I've changed nothing, I've been feeding twice daily, so I'm not sure what happened. I have tried white flour and rye flour and it doesn't seem to help much. Temperature doesn't seem to be an issue either. I see some bubbles so it's not totally dead, but it's really not doing much more than that.
I was googling last night and noticed that some sourdough maintenance guides suggest a 1;1;1 ratio (for example, King Arthur). I had been following a 1:5:5 ratio based on Maurizio's guide on the Perfect Loaf and it had been working but I am wondering if, for whatever reason, a 1:1:1 is better? Seems like quite a variation in guidance.
Anyway, I'm going to try to feed 1:1:1 and see what happens, but needless to say this is very frustrating.
And then I also found something about a scrapings method so that's even less starter per flour/water adds. I'm so confused! But mainly, still frustrated.
Sara, if your starter is weak feed 1:1:1. If you feed a higher ratio like 1:5:5 you are diluting the microbes with a weaker starter. Heavy feeds are best used with very active starters.
Feed 1 to 1 and keep the starter warm (82F or less). When the starter quits rising and just begins to fall, feed it again. If you have whole grain flour available, feed it with that for a while.
It should spring back. No idea why this happened.
Danny
Update - a guess
Maybe you fed the starter before it matured.
Explanation of starter refresh
NOTE - 100 microbes is ridiculously low, but used to simplifying the example.
Lets say your mature starter has 100 microbes counting both yeast and LAB and that starter weighs 100 grams.
You take 50g starter which now has 50 microbes.
To that you mix 50g water and 50g flour.
The total weight of your starter is now 150g and has 50 microbes.
If your starter is not allowed to produce at least another 100 microbes, you have diluted it’s activity and strength.
I hope this simplified example provides a better understanding of starter cycles to maturity.
Thanks, I have started feeding that way, starting last night. We'll see! I have been doing it every 12 hours no matter what but perhaps it wasn't ready enough and I've been gradually weakening it, like you say? The part about diluting makes sense.
to do with flour at all. I once had a starter drop dead suddenly. It was the water. The water bleached my wash as well. There must have been a chlorine flush of some kind and i got the worst of it. So now i let my water stand for at least a day before using it.
Another posibility might be what's happening to the starter between feeding, what is the routine? Chilling too soon has the same effect as overfeeding. So does waiting only to "double" before feeding when the starter could triple or quadruple which is commom with 1:5 ratios.
Swiching flours, watch the starter not the clock especially feeding a rye starter only wheat. Some rye starters will balk at not getting a fair share of rye flour in their food and need much longer to work with it.
That seems so counterintutive: 1:1:1 ratios are meant to double, but 1:5 are supposed to triple/quadruple? Mine was definitely not doing that.
I suppose it's not counterintuitive in the sense that there is so much more food before they get exhausted. But I would have thought more starter would grow faster.
In any case, I was doing 1:5 and only doubling, so perhaps I've just slowly been diluting it and it's only become obvious recently. Thank you and here's hoping.
That seems so counterintutive: 1:1:1 ratios are meant to double, but 1:5 are supposed to triple/quadruple? Mine was definitely not doing that.
I suppose it's not counterintuitive in the sense that there is so much more food before they get exhausted. But I would have thought more starter would grow faster.
In any case, I was doing 1:5 and only doubling, so perhaps I've just slowly been diluting it and it's only become obvious recently. Thank you and here's hoping.
Sara, a 1:1:1 can easily triple and even more. The optimum time to feed any starter that is thick enough to rise is once is starters to fall/recede. Of course a 150% hydrated started in incapable of rising because it is too wet.
Here is a 1:1:1 starter at maturity.
That's impressive. There's a pannetone from Glezer's Artisan Baking that I want to make one day but she says you need a starter that triples or quadruples in 4-6 hours. You are on your way!
Back in business! My first 1:1 feed didn't do too much, but then I did a second one 12 hours later that doubled in 12 hours (and collapsed when I tapped it on the counter). I fed again at 9:30 and it had tripled by 6 AM so I think we're looking good. My leaven for tartine basic country bread is coming along nicely.
I was so worried about underfeeding and sticking to a schedule that, combined with a 1:5 feed, I think effectively I was diluting things too much. Thanks all! Glad it was able to bounce back relatively quickly.