Problem with new starter from Ken Forkish

and Abe and MIniOven rescued me.  I'm sure they will post later.  I switched over to rye and it took off.  And btw, you have to be patient... I didn't get a starter worth baking with for almost 2 weeks.  I baked w it after one plus, but should've waited 2.  Even now at just 4+ weeks, it's just getting reliable, if not fully mature.

Rye has more goodies that help in getting a starter going.  Once it takes off, you can convert it to whatever you want. Just my newbie 2 cents

hester

Plus, the chlorine in my water I think inhibited starter growth.  So use bottled water, or your own water that's left out overnight (the chlorine dissipates) or as Abe suggests, boil and let it cool.  But use rye.

1. Use bottled spring water or, at least, water that has been sitting out for a minimum of 24 hours.

2. Mix the fledgling starter frequently. It needs lots of air as it comes to life and a bubbly happy state.

3. Do not worry about exact measurements. Starters are easy and once yours is ready to bake with, there is no reason to follow an exact recipe.

4. I use AP flour mostly, sometimes whole wheat, sometimes spelt, or sometimes rye. My starter is not a picky eater. As long as you feed often enough, you are good. If your starter is sitting on the counter, feed twice a day. If it is in the fridge, feed twice a week. That's more often than necessary, but will guarantee liveliness. 

5. For more instructions with plenty of room for error, here is my blog page on starters.

6. You will never go wrong with advice from MiniOven. She is a source of bread wisdom.

Lots of good advice already! Don't think anyone mentioned yet, but it seems that pretty often people have a "false start" when creating a new starter. They'll see activity in the first day or three days, and then it seems to go dead and they give up/toss it.

My understanding is that what's usually happening is the initial activity is mostly bacterial, and things quiet down while the yeast establishes itself. Once the little beasties get their population up and sort things out with the bacteria, you'll see activity again, though that could take a few days or a week.

Sounds like that might be what happened with you. Push on through and you should get there.

Make sure you have a temp of 75°F or 24°C  and a container that doesn't seal very tightly.  I even like a little water on top.   I have two new starters a meter away from me at the moment parked in a small box next to my chimney (it runs up thru the kitchen.)  The einkorn was started on Thursday and another rye on Friday.  Just one tablespoon of flour and enough water to keep it wet, one tablespoon.  The first two days I added nothing.  The other days just another spoon of flour and enough water to keep it wet, one or two spoons of water.    

Today Monday, 4 whole days later, the Einkorn was foamy and doubled, rose and fell, I could see the ring around the starter jar (I can't stir that consistently.)   So I fed it again (no discarding here) but left out extra water so it would be thick and it happily foamed up, peaking as I type.  The rye has also been given more flour and water to about double the amount in the deli container and thickened up to dough consistency, it smells good, bubbles  tastes sour and smells even better!.  It doubled in size, just looked and is falling down.  Both have pungent ferment aromas.  

Both get fed now (almost 9 pm)  and I will now reduce them (the first discard)  to keep them small and then feed them.  Unless... unless I want to bake tomorrow?  That is the Q.  I have one pint container half full of rye starter and a little jelly jar half full of einkorn starter.  Enough to make a dough actually.  Ok, I will reduce each starter (instead of building them bigger) reduce to 10g, give each 20g of water and 30g of flour.  Let them stand in the warm spot for an hour and move them to a cooler location for the night.   If not ripe in the morning, back to the 24°C warm spot in the kitchen until they peak.  When they start to fall back, smell fermented and bubbly, then I will feed them again.  Give the new yeasts more to chew on.

From the discards (not really discard - they just peaked)  I could make a 1-2-3 sourdough, Let it rise about 1/3 fold it and park it on the porch or fridge overnight.  Continue with it in the morning.  Or try a new recipe for einkorn & rye  or chill the discards and stir them into waffles.   Lets see how much starter I have to work with... 215g of sourdough starter...

A 1:2:3 (starter:water:flour or s:w:f) sourdough is roughly starter x 6  or 1300g  not a bad sized loaf....  Since the starter is new, I just might use the 215g but figure for 200g in the formula.  (roughly 700g total flour, 2% salt being 14g)  The wind is howling and the snow keeps coming down.   :)

reduce it to about 1/4 cup so you are not wasting and you can double zipper bag it and slip it into your warm pocket.  Think Kangaroo starter mama.  Here's how it's done...

Ignore those first few days of a bubble or two, more than likely not yeast.  Cool temps means slow, very slow so think 2 weeks.  Unless you pop it into your pocket.  The first day is good to have it warm, warmer than 75°F.  Can still do that.  

Boil a large coffee cup of water in the Microwave oven and then shove it to a back corner and place your starter (as is right now) onto the warm spot from the cup.  Close the door and come back in a few hours, then reduce the size of it (no feeding) into a zipper bag, it should be more liquid than dough, squish out the air and put inside a second bag doing the same.  Then into your pocket next to your body where it will stay warm.  At night, no feeding, set the starter somewhere safe and burp it if you have to.  I know it will be hard to resist but don't sleep with it unless you have icicles inside.  Save the boiled water (cover) for later if you need it for feeding the starter. 

Feed flour in the morning (when you do) and just a Tbs. and enough unchlorinated water to keep things wet. keep it warm in your pocket all day. This means that one whole day is not 24 hrs but 12 hrs.  So it will still take longer than my starters.  Gasses will collect in the bag and you can burp them out should the bag get too big.  That should also tell you if the yeast is starting to multiply and make gas.  :)  No need to stir if you are moving around.

Tip:  in winter when the nights are cooler, avoid feeding a new starter late in the evening.  Better to do it during the warmer times of the day.  

Does Ken Forkish mention temperatures when starting a starter?  

Here are my starters this morning...  

They did pretty well overnight.  I stirred the rye so you could see the bubbles inside, the top looked like the Einkorn starter.  The sides and bottom of the containers are beaded with tiny bubbles.  I'm going to just thicken these up and tuck them immediately into the fridge.   I 'm not baking for a while as my loaf came out lovely.  It had puffed up overnight and I shaped it around 11 am.  Baked it around 2pm.