June 20, 2011 - 9:25am
Am I over feeding my starter?
I started my starter on 06/10/11 using a dark rye flour and pineapple juice method; it did well and but when I started feeding it AP flour on day 4 it did nothing for 3 days so I added half wheat flour along with the AP and off it went after 24 hours and feeding it 2x a day. I fed it this morning and it has already tripled in volume and smells strongly like wine (no hooch though). Am I over feeding it?? I know it will take a while more before I can use it but I also dont want to over feed it. I keep it to the 1:1:1 ratio for feeding of .25 oz ea by volume.
Thanks!!!
Lisa
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I don't think you are overfeeding. Keep going; you might even try making a loaf now. The starter is not mature, but I'll bet it will still make an acceptable laof.
Ford
Thank you for your prompt response, I was wondering if I could make anything with it since it is so new, I will make a loaf Wednesday and see how it comes out and continue on with my feedings.
Lisa
It was coincidence that it started rising after a 3 day protest after cutting off the rye. I've had that happen often with a new rye starter. The trick is to not just change the feed flour suddenly but slowly decrease the rye while increasing the wheat flour with each feeding. Makes for a smoother transition. AP wheat does take longer to ferment than rye or (whole?) wheat flour. Sounds like your starter yeast is strong if it's tripling on a 1:1:1 feeding ratio. Congratulations!
Should have known it is never a good idea to just "change" its food seeing how they can be so picky ;), so I am slowly weaning it off the rye i hope that it does not throw a tantrum this time!!! This is an amazing board , I have spent hours upon hours learning so much from it. I spent so much time worrying that I somehow killed them and then I was afraid I was over feeding them........ahhhh the things we worry about when the kids are grown and gone and we have too much time on our hands, but I can think of nothing else I will enjoy so much as mastering bread!!!!
Lisa
would be if the starter still smelled like wet flour and had little if no aroma of sour dough. :)
Is that a typo? 1/4 (volume) ounce is 1/2 tablespoon or 1.5 teaspoon. Or did you mean 1/4 cup each?
If your starter is tripling using these measures, it's doing VERY well, considering you're realistically more in the 160% hydration area, a very wet starter. Nothing wrong with this at this point of the starter starting process, however.
You may soon want to begin using a little more flour or less water since by weight, your 1:1:1 ratio should really be 1:1:1.75 with more flour if you stick with volumes. Water is heavier than flour so "equal" amounts of each by weight means more volume for the flour. A digital kitchen scale will come in very handy at some point soon so you can really know what your ratios are based on weight.
But until you get a little further along, keep doing exactly what you're doing since it seems you're doing quite well at present.
Happy baking,
Paul
Yumarama