Hello everyone
So Ive been trying to start a sour-dough starter and its going bad.
It doubles in size in less then 24 hours. Smells funky, not like a normal starter should smell. Ive tried useing different brands of flour and still it did the same, all three times.
Ive read that is might be bad bacteria doing it...but all three times??
Ive used clean jars every time and a 50 grams water to 50 grams flour.
not sure what im doing wrong. I has successful two years ago.
Thanks for all the info!
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71293/many-different-ways-types-sourdough
You need to persevere and the good bacteria will win out in the end.
Bad bacteria and funky smell are normal in the initial stages. They are both gassy and stinky. They will die out eventually, once your starter becomes acidic enough, and good bacteria and yeast will grow in there after the first 2-3 days.
You can suppress the bad bacteria if you wish. There are recipes for that, they include something acidic in the recipe for a starter: yogurt or beer or even coca cola instead of water, or pineapple juice, or some vinegar, even some yeast, any one of them will make your first starter dough acidic and suppress bad bacteria in your flour.
For example, in your recipe on the first day you can replace 50g of water with 50g of beer, or with pineapple juice, or with 50 g of water plus a spoon of vinegar, or 50g of water plus a pinch of dry yeast, etc.
Occasionally, water can be the source of problem, of that bad stench, then use distilled water or any other, not your usual water, in your recipe