I've been maintaining my starter for a few months now. My schedule is:
- Take it out, feed it with 1:4.5:4.5 ratio
- Let it peak over night, make bread dough from some of it.
- Feed the rest (of the peaked starter) with 1:1:1
- Let it sit outside for 1 hour
- Put in the fridge.
I feed it with 80% whole wheat flour and 20% whole rye flour.
I saw a post by bwraith with a spreadsheet where he calculates exact rise times. He has a speed factor for the starter, which for him is 1.4 and he suggests using 1.23. I've measured mine and came with 0.73...
Any suggestions to make my starter stronger?
Why not let it peak?
It might not be the answer but it's a start.
"I use 1:4.5:4.5 for the initial feed overnight and 1:1:1 for the feed I put strait into the fridge for a week"
This used to be similar to my schedule. I found that my starter began to display signs that it was struggling. If your starter is only used as seed and every time it's fed it's never allowed to activate before refrigerating the yeast population will dwindle. So you take some off feed and refrigerate immediately. Then come the next week you take more off then feed and refrigerate immediately... when does your starter have time to build up a healthy yeast population at room temperature? True a starter will slowly mature in the fridge but it's never given time to have a jolly good feast and it's always in an environment to keep it slow.
If you are feeding it every week come what may then there is no reason why you can't allow it to activate and even double before refrigerating. Yes it might not now last too long in the fridge, I'm talking weeks!, but for one week it'll do fine. This way it's been allowed to build up a healthy amount of yeast. If you're concerned it might not last a week or it's producing hooch before the week is up then you can lower the hydration or change the flour. I find that a rye flour starter lasts longer than a bread flour starter in the fridge. Mine is 70% hydration whole rye and after it's fed it's allowed to doubles and it can last a few weeks. It's strong!
You can also increase the feeding ratio for your starter on top of following the idea above.
Sorry, wasn't precise in my post (edited it now to try and clarify). I let it peak and after the 1:1:1 feeding I let it sit on the counter for an hour. But, I don't feed and refrigerate immediately. I feed 1:4.5:4.5, let it peak, take some off, feed it again 1:1:1, wait an hour, then refrigerate.
I'll try to let it double and refrigerate without feeding again.
That doesn't sounds too bad at all. The starter that goes back into the fridge comes from the leaven that has been fed 1:4.5:4.5 and has been allowed to peak. Then some remainder taken off has been fed again 1:1:1, left an hour and then refrigerated. Sounds good to me. And how much has it risen after that hour?
It takes it 9 hours overnight at ~26C to double with 1:4:4 to peak