The Fresh Loaf

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Weak Starter Troubleshooting?

lemonparade4's picture
lemonparade4

Weak Starter Troubleshooting?

Hey, all - first post!  Threw together my first starter exactly a week ago, but I'm not sure about the results.  My concern is that my starter seems like it doesn't like to be fed!  I was under the impression it would be come exponentially more vigorous with additional feedings, but it seems like it has to "get over" the feeding and never really thrives afterwards.  

Last Saturday p.m.:  100g water (filtered through the built-in fridge filter) + 50g apf + 50g rye

Sunday: Stir in p.m. 

Monday: Starter exploding out of the jar!  Tripled or quadrupled in size.  I stirred to get it under control, but, unfortunately, some of the starter dried to the towel I was using to cover the jar, leaving threads stuck to the top of the jar.  Therefore, I transferred half the starter to a new jar and let it chill out. 

Tuesday: No real activity.  Added 30g water + 30g rye/apf mix. Stirred. 

Wednesday: No real activity.  Stirred in the p.m.

Thursday: Bubbles + about 1/3 increase in volume.  Stirred and added 50g water + 50g rye/apf mix

Friday: No activity.  Maaaaaybe some tiny bubbles in the p.m.

Today: Tiny bubbles, but minimal activity.  

Other observations:  Starter has been pretty liquid the entire time (obviously a function of my 1/2 - 1/2 flour to water ratio. I guess this might prevent the starter from really rising, but that's just my conjecture.  Temp has been 72-75 all day, everyday. 

Any thoughts?  I'm hesitant to bake with it, because I'm afraid the dough will take like 5 days to rise with this weak activity. 

 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

And welcome to the weird world of sourdough. :) There are lots and lots of posts in these forums about the stages that a new starter goes through, and when to feed (and how much). Try a search or two.

Truth Serum's picture
Truth Serum

Welcome aboard, is right. If you are nervous you could do this experiment.

Take  a tablespoon of your ripe  starter at 70 degrees and seeing if it floats in a cup of 70 degree water. if it floats then you know your starter has created enough yeast.

If it sinks to the bottom you know that you need to keep developing the yeast.

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

of flour and water but are you discarding or reducing the size of the culture before feeding it?

A slight increase on Thursday sounded good but not sure if a discard was made.  Take advantage of the warmer temperatures to discard and feed  say 20g starter to 20g water and 30 to 40g flour mix  just before the warmer temps.  And use slightly warm water when feeding.  That should scurry it along.