Hello guys, I am a novice to this sourdough starter culture.
I made this thing a day ago and now it's in day 2. But I'm worried of the large brown liquid formed in between the culture. Can any explain it being okay?(yeah I guess it's hooch).
And secondly, sourdough starter smelled badly on some points of the day (ie on day1) but right now it's not smelling too bad. Is this normal?
Please reply to my two questions, Thanks.
However, if this culture is two days old, I am a monkeys uncle!
Not viable yet. It's the quick off the mark bacterial stage. It'll slow down in the next day or two.
Poster should be warned and not to panic. Don't try and overfeed if this happens either.
As for the separation perhaps lower the hydration.
Abe, not all beginings of sourdoughs are soley bacterial it can be yeasty too. The above picture definitely shows yeast activity. Trust me.
That yeast will probably die off and make way for SD adapted yeast in time..
Leuconostoc tends to create huge pockets of gas while Yeast seems to create pin-holes and in later stages a more honeycomb structure.
Thanks Michael. Not surprised about the initial burst of activity. Has happened to all the starters I've made only for them to slow down on days 3/4. Was under the impression the beasties that were quick off the mark are bacterial. I suppose the next question we should ask is what does it smell like? So it might be yeast too but not necessarily the yeast found in an established SD starter. Good info about different types of bubbles.
All normal. Stir it up and keep going. You'll be making bread in a week or 2. Enjoy!
and bacterial activity on top. All normal. Agree, stir it or shake it up. That dark spot, is that a fly? ...shake after fishing out the fly.
What I'd like to know is ...what's it standing on? Looks almost like a grinding stone.
A fly joke... Three Fresh loafers found a fly swimming in their starter. One poured out the starter and started over. Another picked the fly out and threw it away unconcerned. The third carefully picked out the fly commanding, "spit it out you little twerp!"
Mini, when you mentioned the fly, I had to go back and look. Your comment just made me laugh!