Currently on day 7 of creating my start, here is a time line of what has happened:
12/16 1700 sourdough starter started
12/17 1700 doubled and still rising did not feed at 24 hr mark (read to only feed once it sinks down)
12/18 0700 stalled kept half cup fed 1 cup flour and water
12/18 1300 over doubled in size
12/19 0700 kept half cup fed 1 cup doubled within 8 hrs
12/20 fed at 24hr mark bubbles but no rising after 12hrs, fed again at 12hr bubbles but no rising
12/21 0700 only kept 1/4 cup this time fed 1 cup unbleached bread flour (same flour I used from the beginning) so no rise after 7 hrs.
I was hoping to be making the dough today. So my question is should I feed again at the 12 hr make? Be patient and wait till 24? How do I get it to rise again? Thanks for your help
You won’t be baking with it for some time yet. Give it another week with carefully timed feedings.
Good news… your starter is fine. After the initial burst of activity some quiet period is to be expected.
However, you shouldn’t have tried to “wake it up” by over feeding it. Throwing out starter and feeding fresh flour at this quiet stage is just throwing all the good stuff out.
You have fed it twice now even after it had quietened down, and increased the feed to-boot, so there’s no need to re-feed it again until it perks up. You have also been feeding the same volume of water and flour which will make it very hydrated. How watery is it?
What you should do now is not feed it again for another day or two or even three if need be. Keep it warm and stir it twice a day. Once you see some activity then you can start feeding it again. However i’d probably switch to…
1 cup starter (about 227g)
1/2 cup water (about 118g)
1 cup flour (about 120g)
Do you have scales? It’d be easier!
Then go back to a 24 hourly schedule until it gets stronger then you can tweak the feed. In other words you want to be feeding according to the strength of your starter. As it gets stronger, and quicker, you can increase the amount and how often accordingly.
P.s. if your starter is very watery or over the next few days it begins to separate then the first feed can just be adding some flour to thicken it up. Do you have a photo of your starter?
My mistake I was doing a half cup of water trying to leave it in the thicker side. The 1st photo is today and the 2nd photo was 12/18. It is also in a warm environment. So if it gets more liquidity over the next 24 hrs just add a little flour to thicken it up?
Your starter, in the active stage, looks very good. When it bubbles up like this within the first day or two it looks impressive but it’s not all from what you want in a starter. They’ll be other kinds of bacteria in there too. Over the next week or two the good bacteria and yeasts will out do the bad bacteria. Your starter now looks plenty thick enough and should be fine. Try and keep it warm giving it a good stir twice a day. See what happens and you can report back with updates. What does it smell like?
I would say a little sour with a hint of some sweetness. If it gets liquidity before the 24hr mark should I add flour or wait? Thank you so much for your time and help!
If it takes some time to perk up, it breaks down and becomes more liquidy then no harm in adding a bit more flour to thicken it back up. Doesn’t have to be the 24 hour mark. Might take to or three days. Right now you are watching the starter!
My pleasure. If in doubt ask first before doing anything.
Try repeating the feed before bed and see what happens by the next morning 12 hours later. If it slows down then don’t feed till you see the dame activity or more. Of it continues to rise like this then you can repeat the feed.
