Sourdough Starter Color Change
I started this starter October last year. I only recently noticed the color difference after reading some articles about identifying bad starter. All of them made mention of orange streaks or tint which got me worrying. It is 50% all-purpose and 50% dark rye flour.
On the right is freshly fed starter and on the left is the mature starter. I have not noticed any bad smells. Most of the time it smells like alcohol and sometimes it smells a bit fruity. It normal takes around 12 hrs to double in size. I have been keeping it on my counter lately with an ambient temp around 60-70F. Sometimes I keep it in a proof box set at 82F. I usually feed every 4-5 days as I like to have really sour bread.
My main question is whether or not the change in color from feeding to it being mature is normal or if I should discard it.
of a rye starter fermenting is a slight change in colour. I've noticed this when starting up rye starters. It varies with the rye flour and there are different varieties. Seems the more bran or whole rye flour the greater the change. It starts out grey and gets brighter, lighter and i would say more like your photo. So I am not too worried. I suppose you could try taking just a small amout of flour mix with a dilute vinegar and water mixture and see if you can repeat the colour. Let me find you a photo.
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The bottom is dry flour, the thin dark band wet flour, the peachy color the fermenting flour with gas bubbles starting to rise up, and the top water acid layer protecting the culture and tinted from bran. After removing some of the fermenting starter....and inoculating a levain... when ready, was the same peachy tan hue. It was an excellent starter and made from Roger's Rye from Canada 2013.
I use 20 gram ww flour and 15 gram of rye flour. And I also notice this.
The first rection from me was thats a nice looking ripe stater. Go and bake with it.
a small portion was used as levain inoculate and almost ready for dough. A few more bubbles. Got my years mixed up...2014.
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I noticed a similar but more subtle change in colors in my starter when using WW flour. I tried to take a pic to ask on the board, but the color difference, altho enough to be visible to my eyes, didn't show up in the pic.