Sourdough Starter Analysis
Hi everyone! I have been reading TFL for quite some time, but just recently decided to make an account and start posting. I have a question about SD starter analysis. Does anyone know of a place (or someone) that offers a service you can pay to send in your SD culture and have it analyzed? I know of one company that is only accepting select starters for their library after you have registered it on their site..but I am looking for more of a sure-fire thing. I am curious because I purchased a starter that could be traced back 200+years supposedly..but my home made starter is much more active. I am wondering if maybe the drying/revive process/environment affected it..or maybe it was kept in the fridge and I keep mine on the counter..but it is just super sluggish and I am trying everything I can think of to strengthen it. It was so bad I baked a pancake with it this morning 😭 and both the starter and my dough smelled extremely acidic. Whatever is going on..I think the acid might be killing the yeast..I am feeding it multiple times a day and still cant get rid of the acidity. So I was really hoping I could find a place to examine it, lol. Anyway nice to meet you all!
-Sammie
Sorry, I can't help you with analysis, but I can suggest that if you think acidity is a problem, you can give your starter a wash to get rid of some of the acidity. I confess, I've never had to do this myself, but I have read about it and watched this video (part one of 2). It's from Puratos and Karl de Smedt, so I reckon you can trust it.
Good luck
Jeremy
Sammie, I don’t know of a place that will analyze your starter, but wanted to comment. If you are finding your starter to possibly be too acidic, then you can solve that with large feeds. The yeast are far less affected by the acidic than the LAB, so the acid isn’t hurting them particularly. The possible concern with a highly acidic starter might be that there is too much acid transferred to the dough which could then cause gluten breakdown earlier in the dough development. However, considering how little of the starter gets used if your are building a levain it really doens’t do this.
Anyhow, what you can do to fix acidity, assuming it is somehow excessive, would be to use large ratio builds of whole rye or other whole grain, but I think rye is best for reviving a starter. Even if you were to do several 1:6:6 feeds with whole rye that would fix any possible excessive acidity if that is actually the problem and I don’t think it is. Whole rye is great to reinvigorate a starter anyhow so will help it get back into shape.
Benny
Thank you for the replies everyone. I actually may have been overfeeding it..because it was so acidic..and that is why my yeast was sluggish..but it was overly acidic before i started feeding it more often..because I thought diluting it would help solve my issue. What actually helped my issue was a couple drops of lemon juice (idk why...) but i tried it..and the yeast flourished and acidity decreased. Thanks for your suggestions everyone 😁
Analysis - only thing I can say is, if ya got enough $$ you can find a place, but I'm sure it'll be a lot of $$.
Acidity/strengthening - Mix 1 part starter to 50 food, keep at room temp and stir a couple 3 times a day. When the rise slows down or stops, you can feed. Should take care of both issues.
And give it time to do its thing, it'll work out eventually. Enjoy!
Are you sure it's an acid smell ?
If you are talking about Carl's Oregon Trail starter, I used to use it, and I thought it smelled too much like a barnyard, sort of a manure and urine smell. The bread it made was fine though.
If it is sluggish, you may be feeding it too often, or not letting it sit at room temp long enough.
If you pull it out of fridge, feed it, and put it right back in the fridge, you'll get what you describe.
Supposing you feed it 1:1:1, starting cold from the fridge, it takes about 3 to 4 hours at room temp to double, and then you can put it back in the fridge.
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There can also be a problem if you feed a starter unmalted white flour, as there are too few enzymes to convert starch to sugar.
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What country are you in? What brand and type of flour are you feeding the flour?
I bought a starter off ebay..but I think they laced it with yeast because when I revived it..it was bubbling rapidly and smelled like commercial yeast..so I think I got ripped off 😂 oh well it was only a few $. I keep both of my starters out of the fridge and feed them when they start to collapse..which is usually 8-20hrs depending on the ratio of my feed. My original starter is now so active it more than doubles to 1.1.1 after 2-3hrs at room temp (70-73F) so I usually feed it at much larger proportions. The other starter..it didnt seem to matter what I fed it..it would be extremely acidic and yeast production was extremely low..So i replied to another post stating that I used a couple of drops of lemon juice...which solved my issue and my yeast started flourishing during that feed..and acidity decreased as well. And just in case you were wondering..I feed them both whole rye because they absolutely love it 😂. I just recently made a starter from scratch with sprouted white wheat..and I'm super curious to see the difference in taste once it is ready 😊