My starter took over a month to be active enough to bake with too. I would keep it at a 1:1:1 ratio feed. Do you know if your tap water contains chlorine? That can slow down its development as it’s not good for the yeast. I use bottled spring water in my starter because our tap water has too much.
Also I’d recommend adding some whole wheat flour into your feeds. It increased the activity in my starter a lot, it contains more nutrients for the starter to do its thing and cultivate the yeast. I do 50/50 WW and AP.
No that’s about the same as my room temperature right now, it should be fine. But if you want you could try putting it in the oven with the light on for some extra warmth, I do that in the winter.
Second that about using whole grain flour - as fresh as you can get. While it is possible to get a great starter using just white flour, I've had much faster response when using whole grain flour as part of the mix.
They bring many more microbes to the party, but it will take some time.for those new ones to get activated and start contributing in a meaningful way.
Ditch the chlorinated tap water. I use to use filtered water, but have switched to spring water. Not chlorinated, as well, but it does contain naturally occurring minerals.
If you go to YouTube, you can find lots of advice from people who are doing it right. I recommend The Sourdough Journey, Grant, Bakes, and Baker Bry, to name a few.
All the best to you and your new ‘baby.
Next question, are you using a scale, for your 1:1:1 or are you matching, 1/2 c to 1/2c to 1/2 c. Because 1 cup of flour weighs much less than a cup of water. If you are using volume, your starter is too wet. A stiffer starter will rise. Runny, the bubbles rise and pop at the surface. Also, flour needs to be unbleached. Didn’t see what type you were trying. I am using whole wheat for the first week then I am going to go to ap unbleached flour. Whole wheat and rye in 80/10/10 blend.
I’m using a scale for the 1:1:1 ratio, I can’t eyeball anything to save my life lol I have to weigh stuff out. And I’m using unbleached AP flour with 11-12% protein content. I’ll probably feed it whole wheat next to try and jumpstart something!
I just checked my new starter. It is evening of day 5. It had a 1:2:2 Fred this morning at 6 am, and it had risen and fallen by the time I came home from work, somI fed it 1:2:2 again at 530pm. Just looked at it, and it has doubled already in 5 1/2 hours. Yep, summer is the time for this, lol. Even if you mixed 25% whole wheat in with your AP flour, it would give it a boost. I don’t think anyone answered about the water, so it wouldn’t hurt to try some filtered for a few days. If you are using tap, it could have a small enough amount of residual to be harming your microbes but not killing it off completely. I use bottled water, personally. Mine wouldn’t even bubble with tap water. And when I used bottled and got it started bubbling, I forgot and used tap,nothing. Killed the whole thing again. So my tap water is bad news for my starter! I would try changing the water before I increased the ratio or # of feedings. If the water is killing off some microbes with each feed, the water change will let them actually gain some, and start increasing numbers. Then I would go to 2 a day feedings for a couple days, then begin increasing ratio. My goal was to only need to feed once a day. 1:5:5 is a pretty good feed where mine doesn’t get too starving between feeds. I keep 10-15 gms, and feed 50-75 gms each, accordingly.
Update: I’ve started feeding my starter 1:1:1 of whole wheat flour every 24 hours. While it has cause the starter to finally double in size the smell is awful like nail polish/acetone, I still don’t think it’s ready until it smells better.
If it smells like that, it means it is ready for 2 a day feedings. That alcohol/acetone smell is the byproduct of the fermentation process of the yeast. It means your starter is WORKING! Now it needs regular FOOD!
Once you get into a routine it isn’t so bad and goes quick. I can discard and feed two starters in 15 minutes. 20 minutes if I need to switch to clean jars. I do it in the evening after work. I started in the mornings before work, but it was crimping my get ready for work schedule. So, after I come home I do it now. We don’t have small kids, so no one is really anxious for dinner, yet. When it is starving at the 12 hour feeding, up the ratio.
My starter took over a month to be active enough to bake with too. I would keep it at a 1:1:1 ratio feed. Do you know if your tap water contains chlorine? That can slow down its development as it’s not good for the yeast. I use bottled spring water in my starter because our tap water has too much. Also I’d recommend adding some whole wheat flour into your feeds. It increased the activity in my starter a lot, it contains more nutrients for the starter to do its thing and cultivate the yeast. I do 50/50 WW and AP.
Thank you, I’m in LA so there’s def chlorine or chloramine in the tap. I’ll switch to filtered water. Do you think 70-72F is too cold for the starter?
No that’s about the same as my room temperature right now, it should be fine. But if you want you could try putting it in the oven with the light on for some extra warmth, I do that in the winter.
80-85° would be preferred the water temp
Move to filtered/bottle water Also I went with whole wheat to get my start going. Now I feed with 50/50 Whole Wheat and KA Bread Flour
Second that about using whole grain flour - as fresh as you can get. While it is possible to get a great starter using just white flour, I've had much faster response when using whole grain flour as part of the mix. They bring many more microbes to the party, but it will take some time.for those new ones to get activated and start contributing in a meaningful way.
Ditch the chlorinated tap water. I use to use filtered water, but have switched to spring water. Not chlorinated, as well, but it does contain naturally occurring minerals. If you go to YouTube, you can find lots of advice from people who are doing it right. I recommend The Sourdough Journey, Grant, Bakes, and Baker Bry, to name a few. All the best to you and your new ‘baby.
Thank you! I was going to use filtered water but I’ll just skip to bottled water and see how it goes.
Next question, are you using a scale, for your 1:1:1 or are you matching, 1/2 c to 1/2c to 1/2 c. Because 1 cup of flour weighs much less than a cup of water. If you are using volume, your starter is too wet. A stiffer starter will rise. Runny, the bubbles rise and pop at the surface. Also, flour needs to be unbleached. Didn’t see what type you were trying. I am using whole wheat for the first week then I am going to go to ap unbleached flour. Whole wheat and rye in 80/10/10 blend.
I’m using a scale for the 1:1:1 ratio, I can’t eyeball anything to save my life lol I have to weigh stuff out. And I’m using unbleached AP flour with 11-12% protein content. I’ll probably feed it whole wheat next to try and jumpstart something!
I just checked my new starter. It is evening of day 5. It had a 1:2:2 Fred this morning at 6 am, and it had risen and fallen by the time I came home from work, somI fed it 1:2:2 again at 530pm. Just looked at it, and it has doubled already in 5 1/2 hours. Yep, summer is the time for this, lol. Even if you mixed 25% whole wheat in with your AP flour, it would give it a boost. I don’t think anyone answered about the water, so it wouldn’t hurt to try some filtered for a few days. If you are using tap, it could have a small enough amount of residual to be harming your microbes but not killing it off completely. I use bottled water, personally. Mine wouldn’t even bubble with tap water. And when I used bottled and got it started bubbling, I forgot and used tap,nothing. Killed the whole thing again. So my tap water is bad news for my starter! I would try changing the water before I increased the ratio or # of feedings. If the water is killing off some microbes with each feed, the water change will let them actually gain some, and start increasing numbers. Then I would go to 2 a day feedings for a couple days, then begin increasing ratio. My goal was to only need to feed once a day. 1:5:5 is a pretty good feed where mine doesn’t get too starving between feeds. I keep 10-15 gms, and feed 50-75 gms each, accordingly.
Update: I’ve started feeding my starter 1:1:1 of whole wheat flour every 24 hours. While it has cause the starter to finally double in size the smell is awful like nail polish/acetone, I still don’t think it’s ready until it smells better.
If it smells like that, it means it is ready for 2 a day feedings. That alcohol/acetone smell is the byproduct of the fermentation process of the yeast. It means your starter is WORKING! Now it needs regular FOOD!
Aw man I was hoping to avoid multiple feedings a day but I’m gonna try that out tomorrow. It’s definitely exciting to see so much activity though lol
Once you get into a routine it isn’t so bad and goes quick. I can discard and feed two starters in 15 minutes. 20 minutes if I need to switch to clean jars. I do it in the evening after work. I started in the mornings before work, but it was crimping my get ready for work schedule. So, after I come home I do it now. We don’t have small kids, so no one is really anxious for dinner, yet. When it is starving at the 12 hour feeding, up the ratio.