I think I broke 'Biff'...
I think I may have over-heated my poor starter today. I gave him his weekly feed and placed him in the garage, like I usually do. It's warmer than the house and he can bubble at will undisturbed. It didn't dawn on me to check the temperature in there until 2-3 hours later only to see the thermometer saying it was about 90+ degrees. Yikes! I brought him back inside and gave him a good stir-the bottom of the container was awfully warm, but it seemed to temper off shortly afterwards. I haven't noticed any growth in Biff since, but there are lots of bubbles. Is it possible that I've killed of the yeast? Should I give him another feed in the morning and hope for the best?
It's such a nice starter too-survived a flight up to NY just fine last month and now Biff 2.0 is bubbling away at my parents house. I'd hate to think I borked the poor thing.
Thanks in advance!
But yeast should be hearty to around 115 or so. I doubt you killed biff, but he may be a little worse for the wear.
I keep my starter in a plastic contaner and refresh it a day before baking. In the winter months, I put the container in the oven with the oven light on to provide some warmth. I once forgot about it being in there, fired up the oven and first realized something was wrong when I noticed a strange smell. It was the plastic container starting to melt. By this time the oven was up to several hundred degrees. But an instant reading thermometer showed the starter was still around 90. I refreshed it again and it's been fine ever since.
I'll bet yours will be too.
In the back of The Bread Builders there is an exchange with Michael Ganzle. In that exchange he lists ideal temperatures for sourdough beasties growth cycles:
lactobacilli 89.6 - 91.4F
yeast 82.4F
At 90F you're still in a nice range for the yeast, but not optimal in terms of the organism's doubling time. So, it seems, worst case, you'd get more flavourful lactobacilli accumulating with that temperature range.
Which seems odd to me since we often hear that a lower temperature favours the lactobacilli growth over the yeast, but...
In any event, it doesn't seem that that sort of temperature should do anything bad to your yeast.
:-Paul
If you have bubbles, then your starter is not dead. In fact it sounds like it is doing just fine. It will be more active than usual, and will eat through its food supply quicker, but should return to normal whenever you get back on your regular schedule. When I was in Costa Rica, the temperatures down there were insanely hot, and I was still able to create a new starter: Dulce.
I'm a bit confused by your feeding schedule. You feed once a week, keep it out for a while, and then put it in the fridge for the rest of the week? Can you describe how much, and where you are keeping your starter?
Thanks,
Danny - Sour Flour
http://www.sourflour.org
I usually pull Biff out on Saturday afternoon, let him warm up for an hour or so and then feed him so that I can bake on Sunday morning. (I think it's a 100% hydration? I use the same amount of flour and water by weight.) Then he goes in the fridge usually by Sunday night (or Monday morning if I forget) until it's time to bake again.
I did give him a few 12-hour feedings to see if it would help perk him back up and used half white and half wheat flour. The first feed was a small rise, but the second one apparently did the trick-I used half white and half rye flours (as I was out of wheat) and he rose nice and high and acted like his usual feeds.
I'm still very new to all of this!
Ok, I realize this is an old post, but hopefully you still get notifications on replys :). I am really intrigued by your starter feeding schedule. This is something that I have been considering myself. So you take "biff" out saturday afternoon, feed him, bake with him the next morning, I assume you feed him again, leave him out a few more hours, then put him in the fridge for the rest of the week? Do I have that right?
Mylissa,
I can't speak for Lemming, but that's how I do it. I take "Fritz" (named after my old boss in the bakery in Germany) out of the fridge, let him warm up for a few hours, feed him, bake the next day. I take off what I need for baking, then feed him again, let him "eat" for a couple of hours and then put him in the fridge.
Rinse, lather, repeat...:)
Stephan