June 23, 2020 - 6:09pm
My Established Starter Smells Like loonie Baloonies (Acetone)
My starter is 7 weeks old. I've had this issue for a few weeks. I use a 1:1:1 ratio although I have been adding more flour. I read that it is underfed. So it's 125g of water and starter I am adding 140g of flour. Today I added 150g. Somewhere it said to use 2 tbs of starter and 14/c of flour and water. That seemed to work but today when I went to feed it the smell was back.The started is active. It rises and falls and I can see bubbles. It doesn't float. Until a few weeks ago it smelled yeasty and a little sweet. How do I fix this and get it closer to be ready to bake with? Thanks in advance!
Share
if feeding once a day I'd recommend 1 starter, 2 flour and 1.5 water. That smell is from lack of food. It may even need more food for once a day feeding so keep an eye on it. Enjoy!
I did put in the refrigerator, but since the smell is back I assume once a day or twice a day feedings are needed. when can I transition it to the refrigerator with once a week feedings?
First let me say I'm a new sourdough baker so I don't know much... I created my starter a short while back. I fed it twice a day 1:1:1 for a few weeks. I was trying to bake bread once per week so I kept it in the fridge after the first 3 weeks. Some rose nice some less so it was mildly active. Most of the feeding is done with bread flour or AP. A little whole wheat added in from time to time.
Mostly I was creating a lot of discard. It took half a day to double and it fell before too long. No float etc. Mild activity. Good smell. I started adding more flour than water to feed it more. Somewhere I read that it might help to build strength if I do one feed per day at 1:5:5. Or 1:4:4 to give it more food to work on and a small amount of starter so there was less competition for the available food. I also started giving it a good stir 6-8 hours after feeding. No 2nd feed just a good stir. These changes seemed to really help build it up. Last 2 weeks it came back to life quickly after pulling it out of the fridge. I got good float and activity.
Last night I pulled it out and fed it before bed. It was really active this morning. I gave it a good stir and it bubbled up nicely after about 2-3 hours. It had a great amount of activity. I baked a nice loaf with with it today. I got my best oven spring yet. Others will be able to tell you more, but changing up my feeding and stirring seems to have helped strengthen my starter. Time will tell.