Barb at King Arthur

June 13, 2020 at 12:34pm

In reply to by stephan richards (not verified)

Hi Stephan, I'm sorry you're having so much trouble getting your starters to rise! Unfortunately, it's not at all uncommon for starters to go through a lull in rising that can go on for several days or even weeks. I know how discouraging this can be, but patience almost always wins when it comes to sourdough starters. 

However, check out my advice to Bob below if you'd like to try an alternative feeding plan that should help encourage the wild yeast to kick in. 

I'm always reluctant to advise folks to begin more than one starter at a time because it's challenging enough to get one starter going! And once you've succeeded in establishing a healthy, mature starter, then you can always experiment by feeding some of the discard with alternative flours to develop another type of starter. If it were me I would continue with your 50/50 starter, but try the alternative plan suggested in my reply to Bob. In addition, while bread flour certainly won't harm your starter, switching to AP flour when it comes time to introduce white flour back into the mix will offer your starter a little more starch, which is what it needs to consume and ferment. 

I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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