Hi Sarah P, how warm is your home this time of year, or are you keeping your starter in a particularly warm spot? When you say you feed your starter 1:1:1, are you feeding by weight or by cups? Our maintenance routine calls for 1:1:1 by weight, which results in a starter that is fairly thick and pasty right after a feeding, and then thins out as it rises and ferments until it becomes more like a thick pancake batter with bubbles throughout by the time it is ripe (at its peak of rising, or just beginning to fall). A starter that is maintained with equal parts by cups tends to be much thinner in consistency and is much more likely to separate and develop liquid on top. On the other hand, starters that have been left to ferment for an extended time do develop hooch (as your noticed in your starters that were left in the refrigerator for a month), but this would be very uncommon in a starter that is being fed twice a day at room temperature and maintained with equal parts by weight.

If you are feeding 1:1:1 by weight, and you tend to store your starter in the oven with the light on or another warmer environment, this could be causing it to rise and ferment too quickly. Ultimately this could contribute to a starter that performs sluggishly. Ideally when you're maintaining your starter at room temperature, you want your twice a day feedings to line up with the peak rise, which will keep the yeast vigorous. If you think warmer conditions may be contributing to your difficulties, you could try sticking your starter in a cooler spot (68-70°F), or, if that is not an option, try reducing the percentage of starter as compared to water and flour to something more like 1:3:3 or 1:4:4 by weight. For our starter routine a 1:3:3 feeding would look like this: 38g starter + 113g water + 113g AP flour. This feeding routine will hopefully allow your twice a day feedings to coincide with when your starter is still ripe, which should help to improve its rising behavior. 

• Reply