Greetings
I am a beginner starting my first sourdough project... I am making a Started based on beer and flour I added 1 flat beer 355 ml and 1 1/4 cup of flour. I stir it 3 times per day however I can’t tell if the starter is ok or not after day 5 it started bubbling and now on day 7 it basically stopped bubbling and separates into 2 halfs the bottom is a white creamy substance and the top looks like and amber transparent liquid.
Can anyone tell me if my starter is ok or is it shot.
What should I be looking for ... Most information out there is for starters based on flour and water instead of Beer.
Thank you for your help :-)
Manfred.
Its now Day 8 for my starter and I have no idea if it's ready to use or not.
Well if any one has any info or comments on this I would appreciate it, Thanks :-)
Replies
OK well after 9 days of watching my starter I couldn’t wait anymore so I took a leap of faith and started the process of making my dough.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
On the evening of day 9 I mixed the following :
· 1 – Cup of my Beer Based Sourdough Starter
· 1 – Cup of warm Water
· 2 – Tea Spoons of Salt
· 2 – Table Spoons of Olive Oil
· 3 – Cups of Regular White Flour
The resulting mixture was a soft gooey dough this I left in a bowl covered with a towel and let it sit over night.
After 18 Hours I returned to my mix to find it had more than doubled in size and was no longer a gooey dough but almost liquid mix similar in looks to a starter.
To this I gradually added about 2 more cups of flour gradually adding and mixing as I went along. I then kneaded it for about 15 minutes. I than placed it in a baking sheet covered for with a towel and left it for 5 more hours. I placed a pan of water in the oven and sprayed the dough with a spray bottle and started the oven at 215c. I kept spraying the loaf avery 10 minutes and baked it for a total of 50 minutes.
The result was a fairly tasty loaf of bread for a first timer you can see the images on the following link.
http://sourdough.com/gallery/v/user/mklassen/Side-View.JPG.html
Note: After removing 1 Cup of starter for my mix I fed the starter with about ½ a cup of flour and ½ a cup of water after 2 days the starter looks much different then what it used to look like it appears much more active and bubbly and has a much stronger scent so I will try another Loaf with this starter. I think it will work even better than the first one.
and thanks for sharing with us your beer starter, something new for me, though I've heard of barm bread before.
I have no doubt your starter will work, as there's yeast in beer. As you replace the beer with water and more flour, I expect the beer yeast will be replaced by other microflora, hence the different 'feel' in your latest starter.
There are lots of bread recipes and methods in the forum. Do jump in and share.
Cheers
TP
I think your starter is too thin. You need to use equal parts of flour/liquid, BUT it has to be equal in weight, not volume. You're using volume.
1) Use equal parts by weight, flour and water (or beer). I use 300 grams of each. That will give you a total of 600 grams. Keep it in a glass bowl on the counter. Cover with plastic wrap. Do not refrigerate.
2) Every 12 hrs discard 1/2 of the starter (300 grams) and feed it to replace what you've taken out. So mix up 150 grams of liquid with 150 grams of flour. You must keep it fed or it will die. You must do this every 12 hours.
3) Scrap down the side of the bowl so you don't give mold a chance to grow.
4) After a week, your starter should be ready to use.
5) If you're not going to use it often, now you can put it in the fridge to store it. Feed it every couple of weeks by mixing up the hooch, and repeat step #2 above.
When baking with it, take out what you need and let it sit at room temp for 4-6 hours before using it.