I'm so glad that I found this site, it's fantastic and so full of great and inspiring information and delicious pictures!
I started my first ever rye starter on 1st May following Andrew Farlie's recipe. My max ambient temp is about 24 degrees (that's summer in Manchester for you!), and I've been adding 25g flour and 50g warm water every day. According to the recipe (which recommends a temp of 30 degrees) I should today have a starter which has 'bubbled up & subsided', it certainly hasn't done that but there are small bubbles throughout and it smells fine, and is sort of thick batter consistency.
I'd really like to know if I should carry on adding the same quantities to my starter, or should I discard some of it and then add the flour and water.
I'm also wondering if it's slower as it's colder and should I just keep on going until I get the elusive 'bubbling up and subsiding'.
Long and rambling for a first post - sorry!
Pictures and more waffle on my blog here http://tinyurl.com/dh4eeh
Replies
Wow that seems wet. Most keep a 100% hydration starter (equal weight flour and water). Mine is a bit drier than that, more like wetter than dough rather than thocker than batter.
Um, you have to discard. You want your new stuff added to be similar weight (or even more) than what you have retained. If you don't discard and you keep doubling, you will have a swimming pool full in a matter of days... And if you haven't been discarding some, your "new food" ratio will be very small - you will be starving it and can hardly expect it to grow. It would be like expecting a 100 kg triathlete to compete on a small cup of baby formula.
Wouldn't worry about 30 degrees C - mine was started in about 20 degree house temp and worked fine.
Thanks for your reply.
I've been back to my book and followed the directions for reviving a lacklustre starter which was to chuck out all but 130g of the starter (which is all I had anyway!) and to add 180g flour and 130g water and mix. It's really dry now.....so I'll wait and see what happens next!