My starter does not rise as illustrated on the tutorial. He’s showing a 50% increase in volume, I’m lucky to be getting 1/4. I’m pretty sure I’m following the instructions closely, however I am using Bread Flour not All Purpose flour.
Try letting your starter get to the point of beginning to fall before you feed it again–you’ll see a little bit of streaking on the sides of the jar and concavity to the surface of the starter.
If you already do something to that effect, then try feeding a slightly higher ratio of flour to water so that your starter is thicker and the bubbles are trapped. This will ensure that expansion is visible rather than lost to popped bubbles.
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I followed your instructions, and WALLA! my starter EXPLODED. I had starter all over the kitchen counter when it forced it’s way our of the Quart Mason Jar. I baked a couple of the Whole Grain Artesian bread and they came out great. I put the starter in the Refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Now I’m ready to go, and I can’t get a rise out of it again. It smells great, bubbles on the surface, but when I tried feeding it I get no rise. ???
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hey .im ashwath from india. im currently on my 8th India. im sure I correctly followed every step with my starter. even though the temperature is around 25 degree plus only I’m not able to see visible growth in my starter and it does produce good number of bubbles on the top and few small ones on the sides of the jar. i tried the float test today and it didn’t float . what should I do now. i used 50g of wheat flour and 50g of all purpose flour on 1st day and thereafter only wheat flour from 3rdday. what could possibly be the problem. how to make it grow it double. kindly help me
Stop feeding, keep warm and stir every now and again. Restart the feeds only when you begin to see activity.
can i keep the starter inside a vessel of hot water to keep it warm ? i tried everything and when should I feed it again and when will ik if its ready for baking ? its certainly not that cold over here either. my doubt is what do you mean by activity ?
The rests between the music notes are just as important! Same here! We feed the starter to keep the yeasts and bacteria happy and healthy. If there is no bubbling up it means there’s plenty of food and they aren’t active enough yet. So if you, at this stage, start discarding and feed fresh flour you’re throwing out any of the little critters trying to take hold and before long all you’re left with us fresh flour and water. So rule of thumb is if there is nothing happening don’t do anything. Just stir every now and again. If you see some activity then feed it on a 24 houly schedule. Once you get a steady and more predictable rise then you can think about increasing the feed and switching to more regular feeds. In other words allow the starter to dictate to you when and how it’s fed.
For now take a rest, don’t feed and just stir twice a day. See what happens in the next two to three days. 25°F is just perfect. It’s warm enough.
thank you. ill do what you have instructed me to do and will get back to you sir/madam. thank you
but the thing here is i could see bubbles everyday on top and few on the sides, but theres not infinite number of them , plus its rising a lil bit but not doubling up in size, is that fine? does that mean there is some activity going on? sorry for the questions as it is my first try.
If you see some activity then feed but try a small feed. For example 2:1:1.
If the starter goes completely quiet then skip feeds.
When the starter gets stronger then slowly increase the feeds.
Allow the strength of the starter to dictate how much to be fed.
Allow the rhythm of the starter to dictate when to be fed.
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What you wrote above is sourdough starter poetry and truth.
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Agree – as with bread recipes, important variables are specific to the individual baker, kitchen, flour, and starter, making time guidelines a rough estimate at best and utterly misleading at worst.
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it is completely quiet as of now. no bubbles no rising , I just stirred them yesterday twice. should I continue with the same ? and thank you for guiding me.!
Yes. No more feeding for now. Just keep warm and stir. See what happens over the next few days. Keep us informed.
i saw few bubbles on top but nothing much. the smell more or less resembles the smell of yeast and vinegarish and something like that. is that fine ?
How much starter do you have right now? And can you give a brief history of what you’ve done so far?
the above uploaded pictures are taken today.
day1 : i added 50g of whear and all purpose flour each and 100 ml of water. there wasnt any big differences.
from day 2 to 4: i discarded half of the starter and added only 50g of wheat flour.
day 5: i just stirred it up teice. i didnt discard or add any flour
day 6 to 7: i again discarded half and added 50g of wheat flour only and water. day 8 : no activity.
day 9: i discarded half and added 75g of wheat flour.
today it is day 10. this morning it was fluffy with reasonable rise and bubbles. but it has come down by afternoon. kindly help me out from here, i really want to succeed in my first try to the extent possible. thanky you. and aboveattached photos are of todays status
Looks ok. Slow but good signs.
Try a 2:1:1 feed. So…
100g starter
50g water
50g flour (25g each of AP and whole wheat)
See how it reacts.
sure … i will try it out. should i feed it every day then? or just stir them up as you said?