Starter

Hi G.

It still has a good chance. Keep stiring your mixture every day..even when it is not fermenting.

A possible scenario is that the initial fermentation occured in relatively non-acidic medium. Once fermentation occured the medium became more acidic but your wild yeast and bacteria were not acid tolerant...they did not survive the by products of their own existance.

The good news is that you now (possibly) have an acid medium that will only support acid-tolerant yeast and bacteria...exactly what we want for sustainable sourdough. It can take time for those microbes to take hold (often 1 - 2 weeks).

For years we've heard aboutthe advantages of adding various fruits to get starter started. Bakers have reported capturing the flavours of particular fruit yeasts and bacteria. I am sceptical about the long term sustainability of fruit microbes in a flour/water medium.

IMO the main advantages of fruit additions is increasing acidity from the outset...which means you are more likely to catch suitable acid tolerant microbes as your first ferment.

Hi G.,

I agree with Graham. I have to make my starters gluten-free. I don't use rice flour and it is whole grain.  All that makes it difficult to ferment. I have dried mine so I do have a starter to lean on when mine goes bad. 

I start slowly and stir it several times a day. Gluten-free starters have to be fed twice a day most days. Sometimes it takes a week or two weeks to get it going. I'm finding that the winter makes it ferment a little slower. I heat water in a small glass pitcher in the microwave.When the water is hot, I put the glass container of starter in the microwave with the container of hot water. It seems to help the starter to ferment better. Just be careful and not turn on the microwave with the starter in the microwave. But, once I get it going, it is fantastic. Hope this helps

Don't give up!

Keep mixing that starter during the first week, as it gets up to speed. Stirring and mixing brings in air. It also gives you something to do during the first week when you can't stop peeking at the developing starter.

Hello All...

Simon here, located in Jamberoo on the South Coast (Illawarra region) of New South Wales in Australia.  My partner and I recently purchased an historic Georgian-era property (Terragong) with the aim of opening a B&B...with a little time on my hands (and with the plan of feeding future guests home-baked sourdough bread) I've only last week started my first ever sourdough starter, using organic wholemeal flour and filtered rain water...

I'm having a problem with a lack of 'activity' - day seven and the mix smells suitably sour - but no visible bubbling or any increase in mass (apart of course from the 12-hourly addition of flour and water)....I've fed it every 12 hours with a cup of flour and 1/3 cup warm filtered water and have the mason jar covered with a few layers of cheese-cloth, all in a warm spot in the kitchen, stirred every few hours.  

I'm tempted to add a small amount of dried store-bought yeast just to see if it starts off a reaction - is this advisable?

Cheers!

I too had problems getting a starter going. I threw away what, in retrospect, would appear to have been 3 reasonable starters because I didn't see the magnitude of bubbles that all the books and websites show. However as I live in a cold clime eg Scotland, I persevered with my 4th  starter which followed the same symptoms of the previous 3. It took 4 days before there was any real sign of activity and then I followed the feed every other day routine. I now have a good going starter which I have been using for approximately a year with excellent results.

It is important to understand the role that temperature plays in the starter regime and adjust accordingly.

Scotbrot

Hi all,

I agree with Farinam that rye flour moves things along. I have found that a really nice way to keep the starter at a good warm temperature is to put the container (in a bowl to avoid accidents!) on top of a computer modem or similar that is on all the time and which generates a small amount of heat continuously. I have to lift it up off the surface with a coaster so that the bottom does not get too warm. There is no-one in the house during the day so it is unheated in winter (that is why we live in Australia) so it is a bit too cool for the starter. In summer it sits on the bench neear the fridge when I am building it to make bread. Otherwise it lives in the fridge.

Cheers

When getting an early starter going, in the midst of frustration similar to that expressed above, I added a tiny amount of commercial yeast. That did the trick to jumstart the starter, or, perhaps, it was the frequent stirring I began to do. In any case, it worked and I never did that again. 

Warmth is important as well. My starters do not register any activity during winter nights when the kitchen is cold. But one trick is to stand the jar of starter in a bowl of warm water. That works very nicely to get the warmth started or maintain it in a cold room.