100% hydration starter rise amount
Hey guys,
I am trying to figure out if my white/ whole wheat is healthy. Now I have a 100% hydration rye starter that almost triples within 6 hours - no concern there. What has me boggled is my wheat starter. At 100% hydration it doubles within 6 hours at 1:2:2, within 7 hours at 1:3:3 and within 8 hours with a proportion of 1:4:4 respectively. I always hear of wheat starters tripling or quadrupling, so I question myself, what am I doing wrong? The rye looks way more dry at 100%, which is understandable as it is very thirsty but yet at the same time it lacks the gluten development. Will my wheat starter triple if I reduce the hydration? I will try this today but I would like to hear some input.
Some background info - I keep my starters at 73-75 degrees, I feed them twice a day or on particularly hot day sometimes even 3 times (every 8 hours). The wheat starter smells yeasty with a hint of acidity. I use filtered water, so no problem there. What could be the issue here? Or is there one?
Thanks!
Volume expansion is a less useful criterion of levain health and maturity with a liquid levain. Bubble formation, a wrinkled surface, aroma are all better.
Remember, volume increase is a sign, not the goal. The goal is yeast and bacterial multiplication and metabolic activity. Expansion is from CO2 production (a byproduct of fermentation), but it requires sufficient gluten strength to form alveoli to trap CO2 and cause dough volume expansion. With a wetter levain, the gluten molecules have a harder time forming a network, so the CO2 isn't trapped. It just makes bubbles that rise to the surface and pop.
Hope that helps.
David
You are making good observations and have noted how long your 100% hydration wheat starter takes to double with different amounts of flour food. Have you let any of them peak out? That is where you should see more differences especially if they are lower hydrations (closer to dough recipes) and stirred long enough after feeding to develop gluten.
Flours will vary and so will the ideal hydration for each flour when it comes to trapping gas. Sourdoughs with also tend to get thinner as they ferment.
As you increase the dilution i.e., going from ratios of 1:2:2 to 1:3:3 to 1:4:4, the time to double increases from 6 to 7 to 8 hours! Try feeding at the ratio of 1:1:1 so that you do not dilute your base culture so much. I do agree with the observations of David and Mini.
Ford
Thank you all for the input. Puts my restless mind at ease. After fidgeting around, I indeed see that everything is a OK!
P.s. Still love my Rye starter a little more ;)
A word about rising and that nasty word "double." Let your maintenance starter peak in activity once in a while before feeding it again.
As feeding ratios go up, so does the lag time in seeing a reaction. Adjust your starter with feeding ratios to peak when you are ready to use the starter in a recipe. That's a key concept. Let unused starter (if planning on feeding it) stand a little longer to ferment a tiny bit more before feeding (ensures a lower pH) before feeding (raising the pH) to ensure the pH will rise and fall quickly after feeding. The low pH will help the culture defend itself from invasion of high pH loving bacteria (reintroduced with each feeding) and encourage yeast growth.