July 16, 2014 - 10:53am
How sour?
I'm in the middle of creating the very liquid to very firm starter. My starter has a pretty strong vinegar smell to it. Is that usual? I think that is the purpose of creating a starter like this but I don't want to be way off base on this. It is for a SF type SD
Anybody care to comment on their experience?
Thx in advance.
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S.F. sourdough shouldn't smell or taste vinegary.
Share some more details about your starter. How old it is. What your feeding routine is. A vinegary starter sounds like it might need some help or it is very young. And many here will be glad to assist
Josh
Hi and Thx to both of you.
it is my regular starter - which is very healthy. However I'm following Reinhart's method in Crust and Crumb - San Francisco Sourdough. So I converted the starter to a very liquid one that I planned to use last Saturday. When I realized that wasn't going to happen I refrigerated it as directed in his starter methods. When I took the pseudo "barm" out on Monday afternoon I refreshed it as directed - that is I poured half out and refreshed with 3 parts flour 4 parts water, bringing the two cups to four cups of liquid starter. It doubled itself and then some. But I just find it stronger smelling than my usual starter.
I made a very liquid starter once from parts of my 100% hydration starter and the smell was much more like Vinegar.
Sounds right to me, keep on building and happy Baking:)
It's fine - go ahead and use it to build your dough. San Francisco sourdough levain always exhibits a very acetic smell prior to building the main dough - it will yield a nicely sour sourdough.
Wild-Yeast
Hi and Thx for the comment. I went ahead and built the main dough. It is nowhere near as strong smelling now. It's at the bulk ferment stage. And it's a very lively starter. I won't be able to do any proofing prior to retarding and I'm hoping the retard will slow it down enough to meet my timetable. What's that about the "best laid plans of men and mice"? I thought I had a pretty good timetable worked out.
Are you sure the odor is vinegar and not alcohol? Starters sometimes take on an odor of alcohol/ethanol.
I'm not sure that it's vinegar. I think what I really need is experience. I'm curious to see what I end up with now.