Troubleshooting Levain
Hi everyone,
I've finally decided to wade into the deep end of the pool and make my own starter/levain. I've used two methods so far, one given in Reinhart's BBA, and the other in Forkish's FWSY. The only think I changed was using pineapple juice for the first two day's of Forkish's method to try to deal with the bacteria/pH issue.
Both methods have given the same odd results. Basically everything seems to go great for the first 2-3 days while using the pineapple juice. The starters were roughly doubling in 24 hours, but once I stopped using the pineapple juice and whole wheat flour and switched to water and mostly white/bread flour, both starters stalled and only increased in volume by maybe 50% over 24 hours.
So is this just an issue with time, as in, if I keep giving them regular feedings with they will eventually get back to the pineapple/whole wheat flour levels? Or it an issue with pH and/or bacteria and I need to continue the pineapple juice regimen longer and/or taper it off slowly? Or is it a flour issue? Or am I just over-thinking this and everything is fine?
Thanks for the help!