Over active starter?
I am a beginner to sour doughs and wanted to verify if my starter was off to a good start. I began with 1 cup of whole wheat flour and a bit more than a cup of water (I actually used water from my tea kettle that had cooled to room temperature). After 12 hours I saw bubbles forming and by 27 hours it had more than doubled but didn't seem to have peaked. I went to sleep and checked it again in the morning and it finally looked like it had stopped growing after about 38 hours. Is that too long? Is it normal for it to be so active? Was it my flour? The temperature in the room (about 75). I then took 1/2 cup of the starter (named Fred) and added 1 cup of bread flour and a bit more than 1 cup of filtered water to it and put it in a clean jar with a loose fitting lid. It doubled in 4 hours. Again, I keep reading about starters that are so slow to rise and am wondering if this is ok? Should I be feeding it with a 1:1:1 ratio, instead of a 1:2:2 ratio?
Thanks for your help!
Hi. I'm a newbie with sourdough too, so take this with that in mind. I have read that the first days your starter rises, it is from a bacterial bloom, not from the good yeast that will come later on. The starter may smell off in a couple days, like old cheese or a teen boy's tennis shoes. That will pass. I presume that is bacteria die-off, but I could be wrong. It is good that you are using whole wheat for your starter, as it has a lot of the right kinds of bacteria/yeast that you want, and it will mature and rise better than with white flour. Now, there are a couple pages written about using pineapple juice instead of water, that makes the starter acid and provides a perfect environment for the best yeast to grow. This will help your starter give your bread the depth of flavor and character that San Francisco sour dough is known for. Please read the two part article on pineapple juice for sour dough. I don't have the name to give you but everyone on here knows about it, I think. Someone will direct you to it, or just google it. It is very valuable info there.
Hiya! How old is your starter? Typically, 1:1:1 starters will peak and fall more quickly than 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 starters, And AP/bread flour starters usually rise and fall a bit faster than WW starters, but this is applicable to established starters. Since it sounds like this is a brand new starter... the initial activity you are noticing is not uncommon early on, but I believe you should be discarding and feeding more regularly, rather than holding on to starter for nearly two days. I'm confused by the comments about it peaking at 38 hours--this makes it sound like you didn't discard and/or do any daily feedings during that time? Also, you started with WW flour on day 1 but then switched to bread flour for the next feed?
A few more details might help answer some of your questions.
Here's a link to some good information for establishing a good starter:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/
I noticed you're using cups. Volume can throw off the water amount. A cup of flour roughly weighs 130g. And a cup of water 240g. So you can see that a cup of water is almost twice as much weight as a cup of flour.
Don't worry, it will be fine, just a bit watery right now. I would skip a daily feeding and then reduce the starter to just 1/4 cup.
For a 1:1:1 ratio in cups: Try 1/4 cup starter with 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. (I reduced the size because it can be made more economical with smaller amounts. It also won't go over so much. Activity in the first day is not yeast but bacteria and it is in the flour. It shoud quiet down when another bacteria takes over. Be patient, it does take longer to get a yeasty starter. Temperature is also fine.
Hi, Bas!
You are on the right path, and the important thing to remember is to just be patient. Creating a sourdough starter is a process, as you are creating a biosphere for living organisms from the ground up. In order to do this, you will want to establish a steady feeding schedule. Keep in mind, though, that this schedule will be set by the starter, and not by a clock (because yeasties don’t know how to tell time...).
It will also be worth picking up a decent digital scale, if you don’t already have one. While it is not completely necessary for getting a starter off the ground (it does help, though, for keeping your hydration at the correct level and for feeding the proper amount of flour), you will find it incredibly handy when it comes time to start baking, as a lot of recipes are expressed by weight (usually grams) rather than volume measurements. Using a scale instead of a measuring cup is much more accurate, and will give much more reliable results to your finished loaves.
As the other commenters have stated, the rise you see in the first few days is not the rise you’re looking for. This first rise is caused by bacteria that are present in the flour, and some of these bacteria can be real bad actors, so it’s best not to use any of the starter for anything at this point. Luckily though, this first round of bacteria create acids as by-products, and it is the acidification of the starter that paves the way for your wee yeasty beasties.
Debra Wink’s wonderful articles regarding using pineapple juice are an excellent read, as they go way more into detail about the process that creates a good biome in your starter.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
And lastly, as others have also stated, it will definitely be worth it at this point in the process to seriously decrease the size of your starter. Your feeding schedule will consist of discarding a portion of the starter and adding new flour for the yeasts to ferment (Once your starter has matured, the “discard” is actually the part you will use for baking). Since the amount of flour you need to add is determined by the amount of starter you are adding it to, discarding a portion of your starter before feeding keeps you from winding up with a mountain of starter. In the process of fermenting the flour, the yeasties multiply and get stronger, so even in a small amount of starter you can create an enormous amount of yeasties. But this process can take weeks to get to the point where the starter is mature enough to use. So the smaller your starter, the less flour you will be throwing away with each discard. Once it has matured, then you can bulk it up to the size you need for baking. As for the feeding ratio at this point, most recommend sticking with 1:1:1, as too much flour actually dilutes the population density of the micro-organisms that you are trying to propagate, thereby slowing the process down. Once your starter has matured, changing this ratio affects the amount of time it takes before your starter peaks.
At any rate, keep up the good work, and best of luck with your sourdough adventure!