May 24, 2020 - 11:27am
My starter has become very watery and it wont rise well, and seems to develop a skin quickly. Why?
The starter doesn't seem to rise well at all anymore, quickly turns frothy, turns water, and seems to develop a skin which is kind of weird for me. Prior to this it was rising double or triple and keeping that peak for a long time. Now, it may rise just a bit and then quickly fall. Is it because of the increased heat or the change in four? I was using Kyrol high gluten flour for a while since that's all I had, and now I am using a generic all purpose flour. However, it has gotten a lot hotter and more humid here. If you all recommend it, I will just feed it milled wheat flour. Thanks!
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Forgive me in advance, as I have also just begun to bake with a starter and this is my first post. From what I've gleaned from websites like this one, hydration and gluten both impact the ability of a starter to increase in volume. So perhaps it is both?
If you change flour, you'll need to adjust the proportion of water and flour to get the same consistency you're used to. I dont think a lower hydration (thicker) starter is necessarily more effective than the higher hydration (thinner) starter with all other factors held the same. I believe higher gluten and less water allows for higher rise bc the gas bubbles don't escape as easily, so hopefully your starter is still healthy and well.
Additionally, hydration of your dough where the rise actually matters will be different (and likely thicker). You will want to pay attention to your flour types and perhaps you can use a blend of your two flours to match the protein content called for by the recipe
I don't know much about humidity's effect on starter firsthand, but it does change the water content in the air? But I do know that hotter temperatures will probably make your starter work more quickly, rise/fall more rapidly.
So I think you're probably fine but since three or so factors changed at once, it's hard for you to get a grasp on which is causing the change. Although I just realized your all purpose flour is likely bleached whereas your other flour probably has more dormant yeast on it. You can always use a blend to conserve nicer flour, but maybe try to make changes one at a time to reduce headaches
(I'm happy to change or amend any part of my post if someone instructs me to)