Hello, first time poster here. I've been baking with a homemade starter for the last couple of months. Since I bake once, occasionally twice a week, my maintenance schedule is to keep it refrigerated when not used, then 2 days before the bake take it out, let it warm up to room temp, and feed it normally 2-3 times until it's at full strength. I usually do 1:4:4 feeding ratio with 25% whole rye and 75% AP flour.
It's been going fine and before the last bake the starter was pretty active, almost tripling in volume. After the bake I fed it once more, left it on the counter for an hour and then put it in the fridge as usual. Yesterday morning I warmed it up and fed it, but by the end of the day it was very sluggish, increasing maybe 20-30% in volume. I fed it again last night and put it in the proofer at 76ºF. This morning it had about the same increase in volume and smelled more acidic/alcoholic than usual. I fed it again and so far (3 hours later) it's barely getting over the starting line.
Any idea what could have happened and how to fix it?
and report. :)
It may be overfed. Try using 1:1:1 for your next couple of feedings and see if it wakes up. Leave it out at room temp while you do this.
If it wakes up from that then try increasing your ratio a little, say 1:2:2, and so on.
Will try this. Feeding twice a day, I assume?
Will try this. Feeding twice a day, I assume?
Yes, twice a day. My starter got slugish this particular winter for some reason. Stored it in the fridge between bakes and was feeding it 1:4:4 like you. Got to the point where it would barely rise even after 12-14 hours on the counter. I cut back to 1:1:1 with warm water (85F) for 2-3 days and it sprang back to life. I'm still feeding it 1:1;1 (AP flour) using warm wafer for now but it will usually double in 5-6 hours at room temp (72F-73F). Once the warmer weather comes back I will bump up the ratio's again.
But it's been brought back from the brink and is making my favorite sourdough loaves again! ???
As a newbie baker, but experienced brewer, I’m curious how you guy decide on a feeding schedule? Do you feed the same all the time?
you know yeast growth rates are temperature (and to a lesser extent O2 and PH dependent) right?
If yesterday you diluted your culture by 4:1 your Colony will have to quadruple before it’s back to baking baseline.
this is a chart from a study of saccharomyces cerevisiae in a bioreactor at 30 degrees C. 86 F. (DO= dissolved oxygen.) And the Lactobacillus that gives it the sour flavor is a whole nether beast. My point is if you think you’re gonna bake 2 days in a row, especially in winter and if you have hard water.. don’t toss anything, feed 1:1:1.
... my chart/image wouldn’t show up.. you can find it here, just scroll down to the chart that shows growth rates
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5308499/
I just want to know what your logic is? If you get out the scale and measure to the gram, you’re obviously not winging it, there’s got to be a reason for the ratio, right? Did you expect it to rebound in a day? Does it usually? Or were you on a baking tear that disrupted your usual happy relationship with your culture?
again, I’m a total rookie but I’m also a major science geek and I’m really struggling to meld the data with all of the things that my grandmother told me that are absolute truth- but I can’t figure out why.
you know how astrophysicists are all in a tizzy over finding a unified theory that will fix the dichotomy of quantum mechanics with gravity? That makes so much more sense to me than baking bread, lol. I’d love to hear why you pick the feed schedule you do...