September 29, 2010 - 10:56am
excessive hooch after a week in the fridge == bad sign?
I'm thinking that I need to refresh my levain more than once a week. This particular one had great rise for a boule a week ago, but after refreshing that batch and letting it sit for a week in the fridge, I found a layer of hooch on the top, tried to mix it in and raise another batch but it didn't raise (it was very liquidy/foamy instead of bubbly). What's happening here? Did I kill off all the good yeast in that week with excessive acid?
Also, when people say 'feed' do they mean simply add flour and water to an existing batch and then let it sit at room temperature? Or do they pinch off a bit of the existing batch and add flour/water to that (while throwing away the parent batch).