Barb at King Arthur

July 10, 2022 at 12:28pm

In reply to by Jackie (not verified)

Hi Jackie, that is disheartening! Are you feeding 1:1:1 by weight or by volume? A starter that is maintained 1:1:1 by volume (cups) will be much thinner in consistency and won't be able to show the same type of doubling behavior we refer to in our sourdough starter recipe. A typical feeding with our sourdough starter routine looks like this: 1/2 cup (113g) starter + 1/2 cup (113g) water + 1 scant cup (113g) AP flour. If you're following this routine and still seeing little or no rise, then you may want to try switching up your feeding routine a bit. I would suggest trying this alternative feeding routine:

1. Feed only once a day

2. Feed with whole rye or whole wheat flour

3. Feed 2:1:1, by weight (if you have a scale). For this routine a feeding would look like: 1/2 cup (113g) starter + 1/4 cup (57g) water + 1/2 cup (57g) whole wheat or whole rye flour. 

This alternative feeding routine will make the starter environment a bit more acidic, which seems to help encourage the wild yeast to kick in. Once the starter begins to rise predictably (twice) then it's important to resume twice a day feedings, which will further promote yeast development. At that time you can also gradually reintroduce the AP flour over the course of several feedings, and adjust the ratio of ingredients in your feedings closer to the 1:1:1, by weight.

However, keep in mind that when your house is as warm as you describe, you may want to adjust your maintenance feeding routine to something more like 1:3:3, or even 1:5:5. This is because ideally when you have your starter stored at room temperature you want your twice a day feedings to line up closer to your starter's peak of rising, which will keep the yeast vigorous. Allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings tends to lead to more sluggish yeast behavior. If you find the 1:1:1 feedings are resulting in a starter that rises and falls too quickly (because of warmer temperatures), you may want to offer a smaller amount of starter a relatively larger feeding, which it will take a bit longer to consume and ferment. For our starter routine, a 1:5:5 feeding would look like this:  23g starter + 113g water + 113g flour, and 1:3:3 would look like this: 38g starter + 113g water +113g flour. 

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

 

 

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