Barb at King Arthur

June 24, 2020 at 10:44am

In reply to by Veerle Verduijn (not verified)

Hi Veerle, it sounds like you are one of many bakers who may be contending with a type of bacteria that produces carbon dioxide early on in the process, which causes the starter to rise on day one or two. Unfortunately, the presence of this type of bacteria also seems to be linked to a subsequent delay in the wild yeast kicking in, which can go on for several days, or even weeks in some cases. This is a fairly common problem and is certainly not insurmountable, but for your next sourdough starter attempt you may want to consider trying a slightly different approach, which was devised by microbiologist and sourdough baker, Debra Wink, to help avoid this type of bacteria from the onset, thereby allowing the yeast to join the party in a more timely fashion. Here's an article about how she came up with this method, and the second part includes the sourdough starter recipe. 

Once you get your starter up and running with Wink's method you may want to consider converting it to something closer to our sourdough starter recipe, but I think this may get you off to a better start. I hope this helps! 

Barb

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