My starters has surface bubbles, is it ready yet?

Tam1024 commented:

Each day for the last 4 days I have thrown out all but 1/4 c. of starter and mixed 1/2 c. of flour and a little less than 1/2 c. of water in. I then cover it loosely and let it sit out. Now the starter has bubbles forming on the surface about 4 or 5 hours after feeding but it never seems to rise up or show bubbles throughout the starter.

In a word, no.

The guideline I stress on sourdoughhome.com is that if a starter can't raise itself, it can't raise bread.

So, how do we get from where you are to where you need to be? A starter is a living thing, and living things need to be fed. Regularly. And enough to survive.

The least I recomend feeding a starter at room temperature is twice a day, and each feeding should be enough to double the size of your starter. Also, 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water is a bit thin a mixture. I prefer to weigh ingredients, and would feed 2 parts of starter 1 part of flour and 1 part of water. When measuring by volume, something like 2 parts of starter to 2 parts of water to 3 parts of flour is closer to the mark.

I would add 1/2 cup of water and 3/4 cup of flour to 1/2 cup of starter.

With the more liquid feeding you are using, things happen too quickly. The starter will run through the food very quickly and then slow down again very quickly. A thicker starter slows things down. More advanced sourdough practitioners often use much thicker starters, more like glazing putty than heavy cream.

With any starter, it can be tricky to see if it rose. A common complaint is "it didn't rise" when in actuality, it did rise. What happens is someone feeds the starter and goes to work or school. The starter, rises, peaks, and collapses before the person gets back home. The answer is to put the freshly fed starter into a clean container and look for residue on the sides of the container when you get home. The top of the residue is as high as the starter rose.

A final comment. For as starter that is in a weakened state, I suggest feeding the starter three times a day, enough to triple it in size with each feeding. Or, by weight, I would use 1 part of starter to 1 part of flour to 1 part of water. Or about 1/2 cup of starter to 1 cup of water to 1 1/2 cups of flour.

When a starter is underfed for a long period of time, it can develop unpleasant habits. Some of them can not be corrected. If your starter begins to smell like fingenail polish remover or acetone (the same thing really), discard your starter.

Good luck,

Mike