Starter that smells like sour buttermilk

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farinam's picture
farinam 2016 February 1

Hello Adriann,

One of the by-products of the bacterial action in a starter is lactic acid and, depending on the concentration of that relative to other products you can get a noticeable sour milk odour.  So, as long as your culture is active and doesn't look and smell ugly, everything should be fine.  You might find that the smell changes in a day or so and becomes more neutral and stable.  This variability often happens in the early stages of starter establishment and why methods often specify a need to keep on with the development for 10 to 14 days to allow a really stable biome to develop.

Good luck with your projects.

Farinam

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