Hi Katrina, feeding your starter at its peak of rising, or just as it's beginning to fall, does serve to keep yeast activity vigorous, while allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings can lead to more sluggish yeast behavior. To that end, I would recommend feeding twice a day when your starter is maintained at room temperature. A smaller starter is affected by ambiant temperatures more rapidly, so it's important to keep an eye on your starter during the warmer months, when fermentation happens faster. I'm guessing you may want to adopt the "larger meal" approach, even with your twice a day feedings in order to slow down fermentation a bit and allow your starter to peak closer to feeding time. Try feeding with a 1:2:2, or even 1:3:3 ratio of starter:water:flour, by weight. With a smaller starter this might look like: 12g starter + 24g water +24g flour (1:2:2), or 10g starter + 30g water + 30g flour (1:3:3). When you build your starter towards adding it to a bread recipe you can keep the same ratio of ingredients, as you increase the amounts with each feeding. 

If you find you're not baking quite so often, you can certainly refrigerate your smaller starter. Give it a feeding, and then let it sit out for at least 4 hours, so that it is actively bubbling and rising before you put it in the refrigerator. A smaller starter will also cool down faster, so it needs to be a little further along in the fermentation process before you refrigerate. 

In winter months you may find that going back to a 1:1:1 ratio works fine, since fermentation is likely to slow down when your home is cooler. 

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

Barb

• Reply