October 19, 2019 - 12:57pm
1st time starter from scratch...day 16 and no bubbles...
Hi,
I'm attempting to produce a starter from scratch. I'm on day 16 and have seen no bubbles or rise since day 3 or 4.
I am using whole wheat flour and city tap water. I have 1 cup in a glass jar. I'm discarding 1/2 c. per day and replacing with equal parts flour and water. It smells sour (it moved past a 5 day stretch of stinky cheese smell around day 10). Hooch developed through day 13, but now I'm not seeing that either. I am keeping it room temperature, but that may be a little cool at 68 F.
Should I abandon this attempt or drive on? I'm thinking of reducing the amount I'm maintaining as I'm using a great deal of flour on it.
Thank you in advance for any advice!
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What's your feeding schedule? At 68F the activity will be very slow. You may want to put it into the oven with just the oven lights on.
And to reduce waste, keep 2 tablespoons or 30g in a 8oz mason jar or a small container. If it's in a large jar it will be hard to detect growth. Feed 3.5 tbsp of flour and 2 tbsp of lukewarm water. It would help to bring the starter temp up and speed its growth. Only feed after it has risen and starts to fall. Wait up to 2 days in the oven or 3-4 days at room temp. Usually it will show activities and rise higher and faster.
Now at 22-23C or 71-73F, my starter takes more than 14hrs to refresh (straight from fridge and fed 1:3:3). In the past it takes about 6-8hrs at 24-25C or 75-77F. So yeah temperature change is definitely slowing down the yeasties!