Barb at King Arthur

March 7, 2021 at 10:05am

In reply to by Carol (not verified)

Hi Carol, the kind of early rise that you saw was likely caused by a type of bacteria that gives off carbon dioxide rather than true yeast activity. Unfortunately, the presence of this bacteria is often associated with a subsequent delay in the wild yeast kicking in that can go on for several days or even weeks, in some cases. That being said, it's a hopeful sign that your starter is rising and bubbling, even if it's not yet doubling. I would keep up with the twice a day feedings, which will help encourage yeast activity. If you're able to discern a pattern of rising and falling, try to aim your feedings to occur when your starter is at its highest point of rising, or is just beginning to fall, which will keep the yeast vigorous. Allowing the starter to fall between feedings tends to lead to sluggish yeast behavior. If you're worried about using up too much flour as you wait for your starter to begin doubling, you could consider maintaining a smaller starter. IT's easy enough to build your starter quantity up to our normal maintenance amount, once your starter is mature and rising and doubling predictably.

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

Barb

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.