June 21, 2023 - 1:10pm
Strange amount of activity from new starter
I just started a new starter and there's been lots of activity since day 2. I'm on day 5 now and there's still lots of activity. I know that starters tend to boom in activity around day 2-3 and then fall again from a rise in other bacteria. I expected the activity to fall off but it hasn't. What's happening?
My feeding schedule has been 1:1:1 with 10g of starter, 10g of ww and 10g of water. Fed once a day for 3 days, now feeding twice a day. Starter's size rises well over double in under 6 hours. Room temp is about 25c. Starter has a sweet smell with a subtle sour smell.
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Sometimes things just come together perfectly. From flour being used, to water and the perfect temperature. Start to slowly increase your feeds and see how it reacts. If it slows down then slow down your feeding to match. If your starter just goes from strength to strength then try a bake.
Went to a 1:2:2, 10g starter 20g ww 20g water. Rising strong if not stronger. Very surprised since last time I used the same flour and took more than 2 weeks to get a good starter.
1:5:5 and if that bubbles up nicely then use it as a levain in a recipe.
Fed 1:5:5, 10g starter 50g ww 50g water. Activity slowed down, after 3.5 hours its risen a bit over half. Room temp is consistently 25C.
Risen by 50% in just 3.5 hours with a feeding of 1:5:5 @ a room temp of 25C is not outside of the normal range. It's going well!
Keep an eye on it and see how it progresses.
Should time to double increase or decrease if you increase feeding ratio?
It should take longer if everything else is constant. At the end of the day if it's moving and maturing in an expected length of time it should be healthy enough to bake with.
Most recipes when giving a ratio of 1:5:5 feedings for a levain give the time for it to fully mature around 12 hours give or take. But then again everyone's starter will differ. Some starters are quicker and others slower.
Yours seems to be maturing nicely and on time.
I made a levain today to bake and seem to have underestimated how much it'll rise. It's very close to spilling out of my container and I still have a few hours to go. What do I do?
Your levain is too bubbly. Better than the opposite!
Can you pour it into a bigger container? Of course you'll lose a lot of the bubbles and therefore it now won't rise as much.
Or you could stir it down. I think it's safe to say it is healthy and will be fine to use on time so stirring it down and de-gassing the levain isn't going to be an issue. The rise lets you know that it's matured nicely and ready to use but judging from it's activity it'll be fine to use on schedule.
Put the container into another container so if any leak out it'll leak out into the bigger container.
Slight problem though. I accidentally bought bread flour that has malted grains inside (says on the back that it's malted wheat and rye). I'm using about 400g of that bread flour and 30ish grams of ww. Added around 370g of water. Will the grains be a problem? The packaging says around 12% of the flour is these grains. Along with that bread flour and ww, I've mixed in around 50g of normal bread flour I had left.
Is flour suitable for making bread. No problem. The malted grains will just add nice flavour.
I agree. Had to do a experiments in feeding schedule, amount of water, and flour during feed. Make sure to adjust one variable at time that way it's easier to identify what's causing the activity.