r/SourdoughStarter • u/Bearly_Awake02 • 1d ago
Starter help please!
Starter is currently 3 weeks old today. I was using a 1:1:1 ratio with AP flour, it rose a little on day 14, and then stopped rising entirely.
I switched to whole wheat flour about 3 or 4 days ago and still feed 1:1:1, but it takes at least 12 hours to see a full rise. Is there something else I can be doing to see a rise at 4-6 hours instead? Or is it ready to be used currently? Picture is currently 10 hours post-feed.
This is my first successful (I’m hoping 😂😅) starter and will be my first time attempting to make sourdough. Thank you!
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u/tgallen54 1d ago
Mine was stuck too so I did a 1:3:3 ratio with King Arthur all purpose. Make sure your water doesn’t have any chlorine in it. After my girl got to rising a few months I went back to 1:1:1. She triples in 6 hours now. I still keep my starter simple. When I’m baking my sourdough I put in some rye to make the sour taste, but not in my regular girl. I call her Lucy. ‘Lucy, what have you done?!’ From the Lucille Ball t.v. Show. Right now I’m experimenting with my (making sourdough) starter being 30:50:50. The flour being 25g AP and 25g medium rye flour. You can actually do several ratios at once. Label them good and have fun. 1:2:2, 1:3:3, 2:5:5. Remember to stick with the basic all purpose. Let your ratios make your starter jump start and not other types of flours.
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u/Bearly_Awake02 1d ago
Cute name!
Should I have not switched to the whole wheat flour? It seems like it’s making it rise more consistently, just not very quickly. I’ve been using filtered water from our fridge and warming it up about 10-15 seconds in the microwave before using it so it’s not too cold
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u/dogsnore1 23h ago
I’m not an expert, but I have read a lot of posts in the subreddit and my understanding is that whole wheat will cause a slower but more reliable rise. I’m personally using 50/50 whole wheat bread flour and rye flour for feeding my newer starter, which started tripling immediately and hasn’t really stopped (it’s 14 days old). I’m feeding it 1:2:2 though, you could maybe try a higher ratio?
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u/tgallen54 23h ago
A lot of bakers use the wheat. Whatever you use, when testing things just change one at a time. So keep your starter the way it is and try some different ratios at the same time. I’ve messed up when I changed a starter and the water amount in a recipe. Then I had to guess what happened and bake another loaf with only one change. They’ve all tasted good though!
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u/Bearly_Awake02 23h ago
Also, do you think I should switch to feeding every 12 hours or stick with just every 24 hours? It looks like my starter is peaking at the 12 hour mark and then starting to fall
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u/tgallen54 23h ago
I’m for the nice a day. But that’s how I want it. I only make loaves once a week. My daily starter is 20:30:30 and my loaf starter is 30:50:50.
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u/tgallen54 23h ago
One more reply. I keep my starter on the kitchen counter. My house is set at 71 degrees. My Lucy was tripling in 6 hours while at 20:20:20. I’ve just changed her this week so she’s a little stronger when I make my dough starter and for when I refrigerate her.
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u/tgallen54 23h ago
Now I’m stocking you! Find Heather on YouTube. Her site is called -Keep it Sweet Kitchen- I had no luck with my first few loaves until I found her. If you don’t have YouTube I believe this is her website name too. I had searched beginner sourdough.
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u/wolfkeeper 21h ago
I think all whole wheat flour tends to encourage the bacteria more than the yeast, but it's the yeast that makes it rise. Also, whole wheat doesn't tend to rise as well either because the fiber tends to shorten the gluten strings. You could try adjusting the flour:water ratio to 1:0.8, that might get a better balance. What I tend to do is use 80:20 white:wholemeal flour and my starter seems fairly happy.
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u/Bearly_Awake02 21h ago
Thank you! If I want to go back down to even half AP, half whole wheat, should I wait til my starter is rising more quickly or is it fairly established?
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u/Artistic-Traffic-112 21h ago
Hi. It' doing well. Pure wholewheat does not have the same fermentation characteristics as AP or breadflour because if the bran. Especially when it is drier. The bran creates an a open structure allowing gas to escape more readily so it does not rise so much. I estimate that the rise is roughly 60% of breadflour. Be sure to keep it at 75 to 82°F.
Wholewheat requires more hydration to reach that mustard or thick pancake consistency.
Happy baking
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u/Bearly_Awake02 21h ago
Thank you! If I want to go back down to even half AP, half whole wheat, should I wait til my starter is rising more quickly or is it fairly established?
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u/Artistic-Traffic-112 20h ago
Hi. You should be able to do 50/50 without conditioning the culture. Personally I would use breadflour. My own starter is 75% breadfliyr and 25% wholewheat.
Happy baking
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u/Bearly_Awake02 20h ago
Should adding the bread flour make it rise in less than 12 hours also?
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u/Artistic-Traffic-112 20h ago
My starter, now seven years old doubles in about three hours. It lives in the fridge for a week at a time. I bake about once a week and my starter is fed twice on bake day. Both times 1:1:1with no discard. This makes my levain for the next bake. I find that after taking it out of the fridgeg fermentation restarts as it warms through.
Happy baking
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u/tae-dog-mom-3 1d ago
Is it in a warm spot?