Hey there,
I have recently started trying to make bread and have a couple questions of maintaining my starter. I have had my starter for a couple weeks now and it seems to be maturing but haven't been able to pass a float test yet. I noticed the bubbles in my starter were not big or incorporated into my starter like the pictures ive seen so I decided to try adjusting the hydration levels. My starter feedings consist of 110g of starter, 65 grams of ww flour and 45 g warm tap water and feed it roughly every 12 hours. A side note too is that its quite cold in my house and try to keep my starter "room temp" but I fear that it might just be that way till spring/summer? I try to leave my heat on as much as possible but it doesn't seem to be having any positive results. I also work in a kitchen so im not around to check the rise and fall of the first morning feeding, only the night feeding after work.
The last couple days ive noticed a complete 180 degree change with the amount and size of bubbles in my water but one thing I notice is that the bubbles are not penetrating the surface the the starter and are only in the middle/bottom of the jar. Would stirring the starter help to bacteria to the top so I can pass a float test? Or is it that the starter is too thick and should go back to 100% hydration?
Thank you for all and any troubleshooting and looking foreward to the first baked loaf :)
All you need is live yeast and those bubbles show you have that. Leave it alone for 24 hours and I promise you it will float.
why are you feeding twice a day? Especially if it’s cool in your house?
“feeding” is a misnomer. What you are really doing is “resupplying the neighborhood”. Right now there is plenty of food, and your population is growing, evidenced by the bubbles. You don’t have enough critters, yet, because you can’t pass the float test, and yet you still evict half the population 2x a day! Why?
You have a suburb population and what you want is a city. You should only feed to keep them from starving.. Does that make sense? The yeast and bacteria are totally happy and growing (slowly in the cool temps) but every time they try to create a skyscraper you demolish them back to single family ranches. Lol.
do you keep houseplants? Just like overwatering is bad for your plants, more is not better.
Yeast, in the presence of food will eat and grow (and in the process make CO2). How fast they do that depends on temperature. You can put all the food on the banquet table you want, but they are going to eat and grow at the speed dictated by your temperature, nothing about increasing the already excess food will change that. You keep piling the table that’s already overladen while you kick out half your guests.. let them eat their meal in peace.
does that make sense? It’s cool this time of year. Let your guests eat at their leisure and they will reward you.
Ah I see, when you put it like that.. it makes total sense. In regards to "feeding" do I wait untill theres hooch produced or is once a day still good enough? You were saying that it will consume slower in lower temperatures so is it possible that even feeding every 2 days is an option ?
Hi hi,
You feed your culture with 110 g culture, 65 g ww flour and 45 g water.
I normally feed a culture on a ratio of 1:1:1, e.g. 100 g culture, with 100 g ww flour , with 100 g water, the thing on this is that ww flours absorbs more moist than white flour, and will become very stiff after a few feeds. In the e.g. i will instead of adding 100 g water, i will go to 110 g water to make up for that extra absorption, and then i will also use two types of flour for feeding, ill go for a 50 % white and 50 % ww or 50 % rye and 50 % white.