Hello Barb,

I ‘m maintaining two starters: a liquid levain culture and a sourdough rye culture. The liquid levain is 52 days old, is fed every 12 hours with a 1:5:5 ratio that causes it to peak around the 11th hour. It regularly more than triples in size and so is extremely healthy. I mention it not to boast but because it’s my “control” to which I compare my rye starter, about which I’m concerned. They sit side by side on a shelf where the 24 hour ambient temp fluctuates from 76° to 80°F. So, I’m pretty sure my rye starter performance described below is not due to any detrimental environmental issues, nor to my maintenance techniques.

My rye starter is 40 days old and is also fed every 12 hours. It gets a 1:3:3 ratio with bottled water and organic, stone-ground, dark rye (whole grain) flour. In a highly regarded book about rye breads, the author states that “A robust rye sour culture will show bubbles and triple in volume after fermenting for 8–10 hours at room temperature (68–72°F).” My rye starter develops good bubbles, domes while rising and, when ripe, has those surface islands created by the rye flour sprinkled over the top when refreshed. It has never tripled, however. The highest it gets is 120% (double + one fifth of its original bulk). Generally, it stops rising in about 7 hours. For the next 5 hours (till refeeding time) it recedes very little (which is why I haven’t increased the ratio to try to get it to rise closer to 12 hours). The dome falls but the total regression is at most from 120% to around 100% (the doubled point). Although I use equal amounts of flour and water it’s a thick paste I’m dealing with and am wondering if that might account for the lack of a greater rise and/or regression.

I know that excellent advice would be to just go ahead and use it to bake something and see what happens. I will do that very soon but I wanted to ask you first whether you think that I have a problem due to this starter’s lack of vigor compared to my liquid levain.

Thanks very much in advance for any response you may offer. Sorry this post got to be so long.

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