October 13, 2014 - 9:48am
HELP. Sourdough Starter Using Fresh Milled Flour
I am brand new at home milling of wheat grains and I'm having bad experiences so far when it comes to Sourdough Baking.
Can anybody help me with maintaining a basic Sourdough Starter Using Fresh Milled wheat berries?? Ever since I switched from store bought flour to fresh milled wheat berries flour my Sourdough Starter WON'T RISE or bubble or anything but give off an intense odor.
What should I be doing? Do I only use store bought flour when feeding my Starter?
I'm so damn frustrated ever since the switch, its just not what I imagined. I thought everything would come alive and I'm just not seeing what I'm used to.Please help
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Are you saying that you are adding fresh milled wheat flour to your mature sourdough starter? Or are you starting fresh to make a new starter?
Ford
Someone here will drop by and give you advice, but it will no doubt help them if you explain what it is you are doing now, with a little more detail.
What hydration do you keep your starter at?
What is your feeding schedule?
What is the temperature at which you keep your starter? (Fridge or counter?)
I mill my flour as well, but so far I haven't kicked the all purpose flour habit, and since I have it in the house anyway, I tend to use it to feed my starter. I tried the milled grain starter but didn't like the way it looked (since learned that this was normal, but never tried it again).
What purchased flour were you using previously? All purpose? Bread flour? Whole wheat? Rye? Other? Did you change the flour for feeding gradually, or make a complete switchover all in one go?
How do you maintain your starter? Room temperature or refrigerated? At what hydration? (If you don't know the exact hydration level, is it a stiff dough, or a soft dough, or a thick batter, or a thin batter consistency?)
What are the current temperatures in your kitchen? Is that cooler or warmer than it was prior to switching to home milled flour?
Once you share that kind of information, it will be easier to get a better understanding of what is going on.
Based on what you have said, my first guess (and it is only a guess) is that you may have made a total switch in the flour you use for feeding. If so, and if you were previously feeding with a white flour, the starter organisms are probably still adjusting to their new reality. The process can run more smoothly if the starter is fed gradually increasing amounts of the new flour and gradually decreasing amounts of the previous flour over the course of a few days, until it is only being fed the new flour. Some posters here on TFL feed their starters a blend of flours; say, 70% white, 20% whole wheat, and 10% rye. You could try that, or not, depending on how happy you and your starter are with the present situation.
Another thing to consider is that the flour you have milled probably has a somewhat different group of yeasts and bacteria than those that were dominating your starter previously. The new and the old are probably also working toward a detente that should stabilize in a few days.
For what it's worth, starters made with all whole wheat flour have, in my experience, tended toward a much stronger acidity than an equivalent starter made partly or completely with white flour. Your experience may be different.
Best of luck. That, and some patience, should see you through.
Paul
I home mill my own flour. I have three starters, bread flour, rye and whole wheat. I even have a spelt one once in awhile. The bread flour starter uses store bought unbleached bread flour, the other two use home milled flour right from the mill. I have not treated the starters any differently. All get fed the same with the flour they are based on. If I need a new starter, I take some discard from the bread flour starter and feed it in a new jar with the new, freshly milled flour. I agree with the comments as to gradually building up the content of the new flour. After several feedings it will be using the new type of flour.
The only difference I might see in home milled flours would be in how much water is needed for proper hydration. Since humidity and other things also affect this I just go by feel. I use the weights called for in recipes the same for home milled as for store bought.
fresh milled flour for my stiff rye sour starter. I routinely use small amounts of the starter to build whole grain levains of all kinds and usually sift out the 15% hard bits after milling and feed that to the starter to make the levain,. Never any problems with that either.
i do 3 - 4 hour levain builds.h progressively larger amounts of flour and water. It always doubles after the 2nd and 3rd builds.
If your milling your grain to fine to fast it may be heating the grain too much essentially cooking it before you get to that process. Double milling may help. Mill your wheat berries on a coarse setting first, then gradually mill again at finer and finer settings giving your mill a chance to cool in-between. Especially if your using an electric mill versus manual.