Yeast Water Troubleshooting
Yeast water seems to be a popular topic over the last couple weeks so I thought I'd throw my question into the ring:
Started my yeast water culture 2 weeks ago tomorrow, using Dabrownman's Yeast Water Primer [1]. I've replaced the fruit once, according to the instructions, and I'll be making the second replacement tomorrow. After the first week I placed 50g KA bread flour and 50g of the yeast water in a measuring cup (it came right to the 1/3 cup mark) and it took over 24 hours to double in volume. This week on day 11 I repeated the test and the mixture took about 16 hours to double, but I did not replace the fruit (because I have a couple days left to go). Instead, I replaced the 50g removed from the jar with fresh bottled water and another teaspoon of honey. The next morning the water was bubbling along like soda pop, but as I said the flour/water took 16 hours to double.
Yesterday, day 13, I took 8 grams of the starter mixture, and 8 grams each of flour and water and mixed them, then today I added 12 grams each of flour and water. Also yesterday I took another 50g of yeast water and mixed with 50g flour and replaced the water with fresh water and honey as before.
Curiously, the 2nd build of the old mixture appears to be doing nothing, the new starter in the measuring cup doubled in about 14 hours with HUGE active bubbles, and the yeast water in the jar appears to be bubbling less than it was on day 12.
After Lechem answered my question last week about keeping the initial yeast water batch heated, I left it on the heating pad until day 7, then everything has been done at room temp (about 65-75F) since then.
So the questions:
- As the culture matures does it tend to go through phases of greater then lesser activity?
- Since my test batches of starter seem to be doubling in volume in shorter and shorter intervals, do I just need to be patient and let it mature on its own time - or have I spawned a dud and need to start over?
- Are the lower ambient temperatures of my kitchen responsible for the activity changes, and should I go back to keeping it heated?
--Mike