Bread Flour Starter From Scratch
With a lot of discussion about which flours are best to make a starter, and when diagnosing a potential issue the remedy is often to switch flours and wholegrains are best, I decided to try making a starter from scratch only using bread flour.
Flour Used: Allinsons Strong White Bread Flour
Ingredients: Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Flour Treatment Agents: Alpha-Amylase, Hemicellulase.
I'm bringing your attention to the flour treatment agents as i'm getting fast results, so far, and perhaps they might have had an effect. I know they're used to help fermentation when yeast, or starter, is added. I don't know if this will affect making a starter from scratch.
Initial Mix: 20g bread flour + 25g water (125% hydration).
Initial Mix 25g water + 20g bread flour @ 12 hour mark.jpg
Within 12 hours bubbles already starting to form. Room temperature.
Within 24 hours it has bubbled up, you can see better from the side as it's more frothy on top, and it was relatively cool through the night - about mid 60's °F.
Doesn't smell bad but does have a slight musty aroma. So far on par (or faster even) with any wholegrain.
Next step will be to add 30g of flour and form a stiff 50% hydration dough....
First Feed: Added 30g to the initial mix (20g flour + 25g water) to make a 50% hydration starter (25g water + 50g flour) [3pm]
[30 minutes later and it's rising. This could very well be the initial burst of energy not having run its course yet but it is a very stiff low hydration mix and I would have thought it'd need some yeast leavening for it to rise with ease. I'm doing it this way as I had in mind a 50% hydration starter would need more kick, I wouldn't need to feed as often and when it did eventually rise it'd be well on it's way onto being a fully mature starter. We'll see...]
So Here is it 5 hours later...
I'm thinking to not re-feed it again till tomorrow. Just in case it's still feeding off the quick off the mark bacteria i'll allow it to run its course. Smells ok, just a bit musty which is why i'm sure it's not cross contamination. Has signs of a starter being made from scratch but still doing excellently even though it's being made from bread flour alone.
Next Feed: 10:15pm 18-20g starter + 22g water + 44g flour and 12 hours later.
So this is near enough a 1:1:2 feed. With it having more fresh flour in ratio to starter and being very low hydration the starter was very stiff. More so than the first feed. It did begin to rise with a noticeable difference very quickly. Within an hour it had risen some. However i'm not keeping this temperature controlled and through the night it was quite cold. Still it about tripled but not as high as the first feed and slower. The musty smell has gone which has been replaced with a more a fruity aroma and smells a lot more like a young starter now. I'm not going to rush the next feed as the dome is holding and we'll see what it does at warmer temperatures.
UPDATE: A few hours later...
So it's been a couple more days, started Friday late afternoon and now it's Tuesday evening, and it's been through some interesting stages. Been keeping it at 50% hydration and feeding it 1:1:2. When I last updated, photos above, it was rising well but a tad slower and not as high. This was the pattern for the next two feeds. Curiously after each feed it was very quick to show signs fermentation but after that it slowed right down and each time it rose less but was still full of bubbles. Also when it came to the feed it had destroyed the gluten (perhaps that was the 1:2 feed which isn't too high and only feeding once every 24 hours). The aroma was improving though and when mature had a more familiar sourdough starter smell. On the one hand it had signs of entering a quiet stage but on the other hand the aroma was improving and while it didn't rise so much bubbles were always present. Which brings me to today... fed it this afternoon and while it is still slow it's been 7 hours and it's reached the height of yesterday's 24 hour point and still rising. I think the quiet day or two was not a stall but just a slowing down. It now seems to be perking up again. Hopefully it'll be ready in a couple of days and i've got a recipe prepared. Not bad for an all white starter and it's only been 4 days. Here's hoping to have something baked within a week.
Final Update:
...and we're back in business. This starter's quiet time was more of a sulking at the bottom of the jar time but still clear signs of bubbling. It's waking up, getting stronger, rising more and signs the gluten isn't breaking down as much (I think it was the small feeds and long ferment times). The yeasts are turning up in greater numbers now and scheduled for a weekend bake. I wonder if this means bioaerosol was still at play.
Conclusion:
Although still not 100% sure as to why it reacted this way, there are arguments for and against bioaerosol, this starter has been with bread flour from scratch. Started on Friday afternoon and just beginning to mature on Tuesday evening. Was surprised how it really bubbled from day one and didn't actually stop but simply slowed down, always bubbling, before regaining strength. Will benefit from a couple more days feeding but onwards and upwards from here. .
Hope you've enjoyed this experiment.