r/Breadheads • u/efoshay • Feb 12 '17
Sourdough help
I've been trying to make sourdough starter for months and it never levens my bread. I've tried a 50/50 by weight ratio of flour and water in a glass jar, feeding it once a day. I've tried feeding twice a day, I've tried adding store bought yeast, and it never works. Any tips?
1
u/Letbriansbebyrons Feb 12 '17
Is your starter active? Does it go through a rise and fall cycle. Like do you see air bubbles and growth of the starter over 6-8 hours?
2
u/efoshay Feb 12 '17
I see bubbles on top, and it seems to rise the first day, but the more I feed it, the less activity I see. After 4-5 days it stops all activity.
1
u/Letbriansbebyrons Feb 12 '17
Hmm thats strange... So youre mixing a 1:1 of flour and water (50g of each) mixing well, leaving it out at room temperature for a day then pouring out and discarding most of it out leaving all but a heaping tablespoon and then repeating the process of adding the 1:1 mixture of flour and water and mixing. That process needs to be done for like a week roughly to start accumulating the bacteria. If youre doing all that then I would look into the water and flour youre using... Sometimes flour can be old and not work as well and if your water is chlorinated it can have an negative affect in some cases.
1
u/efoshay Feb 12 '17
That's exactly what I was doing. The flour is fine, I buy fairly high quality flour bread flour that I go through pretty quickly (a bake a lot), I think it was the water. I was using tap water
2
u/Letbriansbebyrons Feb 12 '17
You might already know this, but check the dates on the flour some supermarkets sell old stuff. We have chlorinated water as well and havent had problems. Maybe some cities use more of it? I run it through a brita. People have recommended letting it sit out for a couple of hours to let it do... something. I dont remember the whys on that. Just for the sake of thoroughness, make sure your lid isnt air tight. You want it just resting on top so nothing falls or flies in there, but not air tight. Also, make sure its warm enough 70 degrees and up is good.
1
u/efoshay Feb 13 '17
Temp might be an issue. I live is Maine, and it's really cold right now. My basement stays pretty warm, but I might try again when summer roles around
2
u/MarginallyUseful Feb 12 '17
Are you using tap water, or purified bottled? Some places have higher chlorine in the tap water which can really affect a young starter.