I started a whole wheat starter 6 days ago using the pineapple juice method explained here: https://breadtopia.com/make-your-own-sourdough-starter/ , and I definitely have activity. However, my wife and I disagree about the smell. She says it smells like yeast, and I think there’s some alcohol in there. Is this normal? I won’t be able to attempt baking anything for several days, so what should I do now? I was thinking I’d put it in the fridge so I don’t have to feed it for now, but I’m definitely confused and suffering from information overload.
I haven't done sourdough in years, but yours's looks pretty active, so you should be good to go. When I had a starter, I kept it in the fridge and only fed it rarely.
Someone who actually knows what they are doing will be here to help soon.
That looks fine. If there's some alcohol smell, I'd not worry. A few thoughts:
1) Don't worry about making and maintaining a ton of starter. Forkish has people making like 500g worth of starter which is waste.
2) A young starter will change as you feed and use it. The aroma will also be different as it ripens. A starter at peak will smell yeasty etc but if you let it go it will start to drop from its peak and become more acidic.
3) You can refrigerate it but I'd try to feed it weekly. If you're not going to bake for weeks, dry some.
4) Starter is pretty forgiving. You can ruin one but it takes work.
I wish I could say,but I’ve never used pineapple juice in starter, it does not look very active though.But that could be because maybe it is a Bigga starter?
Last edited by Richard Chrz; July 10, 2022, 01:10 PM.
I wish I could say,but I’ve never used pineapple juice in starter, it does not look very active though.But that could be because maybe it is a Bigga starter?
Activity depends on what flour and when he shot that, though.For comparison, this is my starter when it was 4 days old (and not ready, it took another 3 days before I liked the smell). But it had tripled overnight.
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
I have only kept my starter in the fridge when not actively baking. Sometimes, I’ll get some hooch on top, I pour it off and feed as needed. And I have had Nancy for over 15 years now, I think?
The first pic was right before I stirred it today, and this is a couple hours after I stirred it.
Can't tell too much post-stirring since of course all of the gas is gone but I'd feed it morning and night for a couple more days just to be sure.
You want to look for a starter that easily doubles in 12 hours and smells good. "good" is hard to define. My starter early on had a definite grassy and hay-like smell. Not bad, but vegetal. That evolved into a sweeter smell with time. Look for bubbles on the top as an indicator of activity too. A stiffer (thicker) starter like one made with rye will trap bubbles more readily and thus rise more (since the gas is trapped). A thinner starter will tend to let the gas escape more and so might not rise as high but will show a bubbly surface when you look at it from the top.
rickgregory Either today was THE DAY, or you’re a genius. I fed it 2-3 hours ago after seeing your suggestion, and since then it’s at least 50% bigger. Here’s what the top now looks like.
Oh one more thing... You ideally want to feed it just after it peaks (or use it if it's the levain). If you let it go past that it will become more acidic and can even take on some acetone notes.
The reason i bting this up is that if it's 50% bigger in only 3 hours, that's good (it's active) but it might peak in the middle of the night. Two things you can do.. first, just let it go, see what it's like in the morning. Letting a starter go past peak doesn't damage it, it's easy to correct with a feeding or two. The second thing you can do is use temperature to slow the fermentation. Put it in a cooler part of the house or even just in the fridge.
The boozy/alcohol smell starts as the fermentation ends and the starter starts to fall back. Fermenting too warm can also contribute. It's perfectly normal, and actually contributes some nice flavors, more from esters the yeast makes when the starter gets to that point than from the alcohol itself.
Do I Have A Sourdough Starter?
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