Starter HELP!
I started my sourdough starter on 09/28 and it still does not double in size. help 🥲
For the first 12 days I was feeding a 1:1:1 ratio (specifically 20 grams) every 24 hours and discarding the extra before feeding. It was rising, however, it was not doubling nor falling. Someone recommend feeding the starter and then waiting 12 hours and check if there were bubbles on the sides/top and if there were to “let it go” without feeding and to check again at 24 hours and if there were to again “let it go” without feeding. I fed it on 10/10 and followed the steps and finally fed again on 10/13. This definitely helped it ferment I think but it still was not doubling.
Someone then recommended to add a small amount of natural honey to give the starter a boost. On 10/15, I fed as normal at 8PM and then put a small portion in a different jar with some honey and when I checked the next morning at 6:30AM the starter with the honey doubled and my normal jar without honey rose about 50% (not a full 100% for it to be considered doubled).
Yesterday morning at 8AM I moved the starter with honey into a Weck jar and fed a 1:2:2 ratio because someone said it was a good idea to peek feed and give more flour and water; I did not feed my other jar of starter without the honey.
The pictures from yesterday were at 7:30PM, the starter with honey in the Weck jar doubled and began to fall as you can see from the fall lines. The other pictures from yesterday are the starter without honey, it has not doubled and has not fallen.
I asked a different forum and was told multiple different things:
- Completely start over.
- Don’t start over and go back to a 1:1:1 ratio and only do 24 hour feeds until it is consistently rising and falling within 4-6 hours.
- Don’t start over but do a 1:2:2 ratio every 24 hours.
- Never use honey.
- Only use honey if your starter is years old and you need to revive it.
Is my starter established? Can I bake yet? Should I add honey now in each feed? What should I do??
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Additional information:
- I use King Arthur unbleached AP flour and warm filtered water.
- I am using fridge filtered water and the filter is a multi-layer carbon filter and it does not use reverse osmosis.
- Honey is from an AZ local honey bee farm.
- I live in Phoenix, AZ so a VERY dry climate.
- House temperature is a constant 73°F.
- Starter is on counter close to a window that faces east (about 2ft away) but not on the window sill.
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For the most part, starter recommendations come from people who tried them and ended up with a working starter, or who read that some else did so. Troubleshooting, that's a different matter. Just because someone had some technique work doesn't mean it's the only way that will. The reason you see so many different suggestions is that you can do almost anything that's in the right ballpark and end up with a working starter.
When you go to make a starter, you will get various bacteria growing in the mix. They (usually) start making the mixture more acidic (the pH drops). If you feed with a lot of new flour (or even any flour) you just dilute the acidity. You want the mixture to get acidic enough that the yeast can start to wake up and grow, and also to suppress unwanted microbes. That degree of acidity is relatively low, so far as starters go, somewhere around a pH of 4. At the start you don't want to go adding new flour and water, so as not to reduce the concentration of acid-producing bacteria nor the acidity.
The bacteria that grow at the beginning may produce some gas, and you see their little bubbles. The yeast is dormant. As the acidity increases, different species of bacteria are able to flourish at different acidity levels. They may or may not produce gas, and they may or may not smell bad. This whole process seems to be helped along by stirring the not-yet-starter from time to time, say once or twice a day.
At some time during this process, the lactic acid bacteria that have probably been creating most of the acidity are going to run low on food. Then it makes sense to supply more flour and water. Sugar, whether in the form of honey or not might help the LAB too, but generally is not needed.
Eventually the nascent starter will get acidic enough that the dormant yeast wake up and start multiplying. They are going to need food of their own, and they will produce gas as they process it. After another day or so the start will probably be ready, but it needs to be fed on a schedule for at least some days more for it to start to stabilize.
Typically, with white wheat flour this progression takes a week to ten days but it can vary all over the map. You might ask, if the goal is to arrive at a low pH, why not start out with a low pH? Indeed, that is a good plan, and an acidifier that has been found to work well and is easy to get is canned pineapple juice. Don't use vinegar, though, since it has been reported to work against the yeast. I once made a starter in one day, and used it on the second day, using leftover brine from salt-fermented pickles for the liquid - that brine is pretty acidic.
Your first pictures seem to show starter that is in reasonable condition, and you want to make sure it can maintain its behavior over several feeding cycles. I'm not sure about the other one, but it might be all right. Of course, the real test is in the baking.
TomP
First - you will see a lot of ways to make a starter. How I do it is my way. If others can benefit more power to them!
For a starter - start small - keep it till it thins out - repeat - eventually it'll be a starter. Get more info after you've created the starter.
Be warned that you will see a lot of ways to keep a starter. As long as it's consistent before you use it'll be fine. So - make a starter - go from there. Enjoy!
The only way to know for sure is to try baking with it. Do one small loaf and post the results.
Simple no fuss recipe:
Even if the loaf is not perfect it'll tell us more about your starter. Take photos along the way at each stage.