Hi to all!
I am very new to making sourdough starter and growing wild yeast. I did start with a very in-depth research, and now trying to grow my new pet Stella.
i will describe what I did up to this point and then ask my questions. If anybody can please give me your expertise on this, I would appreciate! Thank you in advance!
i started my starter with equal parts (by weight) of 100g unbleached organic AP flour and 100g spring bottled water. I stirred the mixture till it got smooth and placed it in a quart sized Mason jar covering it with cheesecloth. I did this procedure in the afternoon. The next morning, I did not see much activity, and used the advice from one of the sources to not feed but just stir it, inteoducing more oxygen to yeast. After about 12pm, I saw first bubbles on the surface. I did the first feeding at 3 pm. I decided to feed it with WW flour this time. It was organic WW KA flour. So as suggested in a mother source (start a starter), I did not discard anything, rather added 100g of spring bittled water and 100g of the WW flour. so the new mixture had 2:1:1 ratio of 200g starter:100g WW flour:100g water. I mixed the water first, followed by the flour. I stirred it well, scraped as best as I could the jar walls, and civeted with cheesecloth. To my surprise, n only I saw bubbles and activity, the starter doubled in size in 5.5 hours. Once again, I used the advice to stir the starter from time to time and so I did. The starter dropped somewhat. I stirred it again one more time later on. The starter sfayed almost the same lower level than when it doubled. At 11pm (earlier than 12 hours, i wanted to move the feeding to continue with 11am/11pm schedule), I fed the starter, and before doing that, I discarded 1/2 of the starter, leaving 200g of starter and added 100g water and 100g flour (usuing exactly the same WW flour and the same type of water). At about 5 am - I saw no raise of the starter and no bubbles. I did stir it 2 times at 5 am and at 8 am. I see no bubbles and no raid till now. The starter has have nice sour smell, since it showed signes of activity.
Also worth mentioning is I live in Florida, we maintain 79-80F in our house thought the house. So hat the temperature, the starter exists on my kitchen counter.
my 3 groups of questions:
1) Why don't I see the starter raise again after the second feeding? Is the reason in ratio 2:1:1? Do I not give enough food to the starter, provided I live in warm climate, and maybe the starter need more food working more actively? Or possibly it just at the stage of pausing? Should I keep stirring or just leave it alone and let it work? How do I interpret the behavior of doubling after the first feeding and not being active for almost 12 hours after the second feeding?
2) I don't seem to scrape sides of the jar completely and I always see some of the starter sticking a bit to the sides? Except for potentially getting mold, is there any other problems I can get? Or shoukd transfer the starter temporarily to a diffeeent jar and clean the other one from time to time?
3) When I do see it doubles or increase in size, should I keep stirring or if I feed it 2 times a day it is not necessary?
Again, i would greatly appreciate your insight on my why this is happening. Thank you!
1. The first bubbling up is bacteria not yeasts. This happens quite quickly and everyone thinks a starter is born and then wonders where it all went wrong after the second feed. Do not fret. This is normal! Trick is to wait till your starter comes back to life then start the feeding schedule again just like after the first feed. Once your starter becomes stronger, bubbles up every time on cue and smells good then it is ready. In this quiet period things are happening. Your starter is sorting itself out. Stir every now and again and wait. Should it begin to smell then give it a few teaspoons of fresh flour to offset the bad bacteria. Once it picks up again then continue with a 1:1:1 feed. 2:1:1 is not a very good feed and even if it should pick up it won't grow as much as being fed 1:1:1
2. Transferring the starter completely each time to clean the jar out will be counterproductive believe it or not. You can actually introduce germs this way which will spoil the starter. It should be "self cleaning" if maintained properly. Add the water in first and wash down the sides. Then add the flour and mix into a paste. Scrape down the sides. Your starter will rise anyway and when it is viable the acidic nature of your starter will make it more difficult for bad bacteria to grow. Sounds horrible but I rarely clean out my starter container.
3. Till it wakes up then stir every 12 hours. When it does then feed every 12 hours. After your starter is viable then prepare a starter maintenance plan where it will live in the fridge and you'll only feed when you need it.
P.s. when your starter picks up and bubbles up faster cleaning down the sides is also good when looking for signs that your starter has bubbled up but might have collapsed since. You can look for marks on the side of the jar.
Lechem, thank you so much for such a detailed reply! You gave me my happiness back! lol seriously ...and thank you so much for the great advise with the containers...
So my conclusion, I will keep watching it closely and not feeding till I see the activity back, stirring every 12 hours. When it wakes up, i'll feed it with flour and water, with the ratio 1:1:1.
One follow up qustion: should substantially decrease amount of starter before the next feeding? So I don't have to maintain a large amount of starter till I need to bake? I if remove 1/2 of the starter - it will leave me with 200g so I have to add 200 of each flour and water following 1:1:1 ratio, it's so unnecessary at this point. Can I remove all but 50 g of starter and feed it with 50g:50g flour and water?
Thank you!
Keep it warm (applicable advice in the UK but shouldn't be a problem in Florida lol), give it a stir and when it wakes up start feeding again. Just to be sure that you have fed it and it went quiet! It hasn't bubbled since. We don't want it to run out of food. Should it begin to smell in this quiet time then give it a little fresh flour just to encourage it. Once it wakes up then I would think finding a smaller jar and doing a feed of 50g starter + 50g water + 50g flour would be enough. Building hundreds of grams will just produce too much waste and will be more difficult to maintain. I never keep more than 150g at any one time. My starter lives in the fridge and I take a little off to build with. When it runs low i'll top it up. No discarding once your starter is born.
Sounds great! Thank you so much for the expertise!