January 19, 2010 - 10:53am
Refrigerating my Starter
Over the last week I've diligenty nurtured my own liquid levain culture with the guidance of Jeff Hamelman's Bread. It's now ripe and ready to go! I've taken some out to start building it to bake tomorrow, and put the rest of it in the fridge for the first time. How much does temperature matter? Hamelman recommends not keeping the starter any lower than 46 degrees F. If I can't get my fridge to be that cold, is there another approach? Will there be negative flavor effects or will my starter be okay at about 40 degrees?