Starter too runny to rise
Hello everyone,
I am a beginner to the baking world and decided to try making my own sourdough starter to bake with. I started with 125g flour and 125g of bottled water. The direction I was following asked to leave the mix for 2 days and then discard all but 125g of starter and add 125 g of water and 125 g of flour and repeat this step (discard all but 125 g starter and adding water and flour) daily until starter is mature. The first few days, there was some hooch on top, which I discarded each time. Now I'm almost two weeks in and there is no more hooch, but the starter too runny to rise. There are plenty of bubbles but due to the consistency of the starter, I don't think it is possible for it to rise. Should I change the proportion of the flour/water to 60/40 to to get a more solid consistency? Any help would be much appreciated.
Your starter should not be runny, best guess is you mis-measured somewhere along the line. Add flour gradually until the consistency of the starter is similar to a thick pancake batter. It should be a little thicker than pourable. Even if you make the starter a more dryer than 100% hydration, it won’t hurt a thing.
Post a closeup image (taken from the top down) of your freshly stirred starter.
Also, you can reduce the size of the starter to save flour. 15g starter + 15g water + 15g flour is plenty. Many of us keep only about 25g starter (total weight).
Thank you for the suggestions. I will reduced the size of the starter to see if that helps
Stepehr. When you upload your image choose something like 450 and enter that into the width box. The length will auto fill for you. We are unable to see any detail with your thumbnail image.
Was the starter mature when you took the picture?
So, as stated in the original post, IhI been feeding it for around 2 week now, but it's too runny to rise so I don't know if it's mature or if it needs to be fed more often. I was feeding the starter once per day. I have already reduced the starter as you suggested and will start feeding twice instead of once to see where that will lead me.
I agree with what Dan said, the ratio is ok. I actually go to 125% hydration when I make a new starter with success. It may be either the flour or water stopping the development of the culture. Make sure you are using an unbleached flour between 11 and 12% protein. I always start a new culture with whole rye and transition to a white flour culture. Also, make sure your water doesn't contain chlorine.
I started with all-purpose flour, then realized it was a mistake so on one feeding I used whole wheat flour. I switched back to all-purpose after. All this occurred after starter was runny. I believe the bottled water I use is chlorine free.