October 1, 2021 - 2:48am
Starter from fridge vs fed the night before
Hey guys! Not sure if anyone has experienced this before:
I would usually feed my starter the night before I prepare for a sd loaf but the last round I took it straight from the fridge and used it to build a levain. There were small bubbles from the levain after 5 hours, doubled in volume but my bread didn’t have a ear the last round.
I understand there are many variables: shaping, fermentation etc. But assuming I kept everything the same except the starter, does using the starter from the fridge make a difference in the oven spring/ ear?
The starter was last fed a week ago.
Whadya guys think? Anyone experienced the same thing?
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A starter that hasn't been fed (or stirred) in a week will be more acidic. And the extra acid would likely have knock on effects.
Stirring a starter, something I learned from Phaz, is sort of a "mini feeding" as it brings nutrients to the yeast and LAB, which don't travel in search of food.
My starter is kept in the fridge, stirred every 2 days, and fed every 6 days. When fed, it is left at room temp for 2 to 3 hours before returning to the fridge.
Thanks for the tip guys! Yea I let it ferment overnight before I fridge so that’ll be way past its peak. Gna be more hardworking in feeding it before using it.
When I got lackadaisical about feeding the starter in the fridge. Over time, it got way too acidic and even doing three builds from a tiny amount didn’t help. I was producing bricks there for a bit. The yeast/bacteria ratio was totally out of whack.
I took my starter out of the fridge and spent two weeks getting it back into balance by feeding it as soon as it peaked. I tossed out a lot of starter keeping just small amounts to feed. The smell of the starter changed completely over those two weeks and it doesn’t produce hootch anymore.
After the two weeks, it went back in the fridge. I keep it very thick and make sure to stir it when I take portions make builds. When it gets low, I feed it wholegrain flour and put it right back in the fridge without counter time as I usually bake once a week. I believe Doc Dough did some experiments about feeding and putting directly in the fridge and I am basing my feeding routines on that.
thanks for sharing your experience, definitely gave me some insights! btw, who’s doc dough? lol
On here.
There are a few variables that would make the 1 week last fed starter quite fine vs a bit too long since feeding. If you fed your starter and let it go quite past peak before refrigerating it I would say that using it without refreshing it wouldn’t be ideal. On the other hand if you fed your starter and allowed it a few hours of warm fermentation so it was refrigerated before peak then the starter would probably have been fine.
Fridge temperature, if you keep your fridge 4ºC or higher then your starter will continue to ferment even while refrigerated. In this case your starter might be a bit to long in the tooth if it had peaked before refrigeration.
For my starter, I feed it and allow it to peak and then refrigerate it at 3ºC which I have confirmed by measuring the temperature with a glass of water in the spot the starter stays. I have no problem building a levain from my starter for up to 1 week without refreshing it before making a levain. I know that Doc Dough does something similar and he finds that he can still build a good levain up to two weeks in the fridge but beyond that he would refresh it before making a levain.
Benny