Hi all. I was hoping to get some ideas on what has been going wrong with my sourdough.
I got a starter going years ago, turned out some great bread, and maintained it for years. Very suddenly one day the starter began burning itself out extremely quicly and smelling like alcohol. It was useless for baking. Couldn't get it going again. I had no way to test, but since this happened within a few months of my getting into home brewing, the theory is that some of the brewer's yeasts infected the starter. In any event, I stopped baking for a few years.
I got another starter going a few weeks ago. It's been healthy and I've been consistently baking with it. I turned out a successful whole wheat loaf just yesterday. I tried last night to make some sourdough pancakes for this morning. When I woke up I found that the pancake batter was thin with an inch of grog on top of it and the starter had burnt itself out, also with a fair amount of alcohol on it. Again, no way for me to test if this is what's actually happening, but I did visit a brew shop yesterday and purchased and handled some ale yeasts.
So, is it the brewer's yeasts or could something else be going on?
Replies
Hi there, this may be worth thinking about:
'When yeast have access to oxygen, aerobic fermentation produces carbon dioxide gas (CO2), which bubbles through bread dough, making it rise. Yeast fermentation in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic fermentation) produces alcohol. A sourdough culture that has been left to ferment for a long time without being aerated will develop a thin layer of alcohol (hooch) on the surface. The alcohol provides an additional flavor dimension.'
Source :http://www.lisarayner.com/wild_bread/sourdough.htm
Hope that is helpful!
Perhaps ensure you have clean hands when feeding your starter and make sure to whip lots of air into it with your hand when mixing, or perhaps leave the lid off for an hour, then cover.
Let me know how it goes!