The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Starter help

roboboticus's picture
roboboticus

Starter help

I'm baking my way through Ken Forkish's book, Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, and attempting to create a starter. I followed Forkish's starter instructions, but scaled everything down to 1/10th the amount since I want to maintain a small starter.

Today is day 10, I've been discarding and feeding each morning, and the starter has doubled every 24 hours for the last 3 days, but I suspect it's not really vigorous yet. It's not growing as fast as strong starters I hear people describe, and Forkish himself mentions a mature levain tripling or quadrupling in 24 hours.

Should I stick to my current routine, or do I need to make adjustments? Here are my notes.

  • Day 1
    • mix 50 grams whole wheat flour, 50 grams 90°F water
    • room temp: 77°F, finished mix temp: 84°F
  • Day 2
    • discard all but 25 grams
    • add 50 grams whole wheat flour, 50 grams 86°F water
    • room temp: 77°F, finished mix temp: 78°F
  • Day 3
    • very pungent smell, unpleasant, overwhelming bad cheese
    • discard all but 20 grams
    • add 50 grams whole wheat flour, 50 grams 88°F water
    • room temp: 76°F, finished mix temp: 80°F
  • Day 4
    • smells milder, like strong cheese/yogurt
    • no activity, stir and leave alone
    • room temp: 75°
  • Day 5
    • no growth since day 4, but very liquidy
    • discard all but 20 grams
    • add 50 grams whole wheat flour, 50 grams 89°F water
    • room temp: 74°, finished mix temp: 76°F
  • Day 6
    • discard all but 15 grams
    • add 40 grams bread flour, 10 grams whole wheat flour, 40 grams 85°F water
    • room temp: 77°, finished mix temp: 80°F
  • Day 7
    • discard all but 15 grams
    • add 40 grams bread flour, 10 grams whole wheat flour, 40 grams 85°F water
    • room temp: 79°, finished mix temp: 79°F
    • evening: nearly doubled, small bubbles, sweet white wine smell; see how it looks in the morning and consider bumping up the feeding ratio
  • Day 8
    • doubled; past peek; liquidy but no hooch; smells like white wine
    • discard all but 15 grams
    • add 40 grams bread flour, 10 grams whole wheat flour, 40 grams 85°F water
    • room temp: 79°, finished mix temp: 82°F
  • Day 9
    • doubled; past peek; liquidy but no hooch; smells like white wine
    • discard all but 10 grams
    • add 40 grams bread flour, 10 grams whole wheat flour, 40 grams 85°F water
    • room temp: 80°, finished mix temp: 82°F
  • Day 10
    • doubled; smells like white wine
    • discard all but 10 grams
    • add 40 grams bread flour, 10 grams whole wheat flour, 40 grams 85°F water
    • room temp: 81°, finished mix temp: 82°F
phaz's picture
phaz

Use it. Enjoy!

roboboticus's picture
roboboticus

I continued the same routine on day 11 (kept 10 grams starter, added 40 grams bread flour, 10 grams whole wheat flour, 40 grams 85°F water), and got the same results (doubled in 24 hours).

So today, day 12, I kept 15 grams of starter rather than just 10. That slight increase in the starter:water:flour ratio appears to have helped -- it has doubled in volume in 12 hours. I'll see how it looks in the morning.