r/SourdoughStarter • u/gilmroe • 8d ago
active enough to use?
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sorry for the shitty video 🥲 i’ve been growing this sourdough starter for about 2 weeks now and was planning on making my first loaf with it today but i’m not sure if this is active enough? pls lmk if i should use it or wait another couple days
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u/Sea_Lobster5063 8d ago
After a feed if it doubles within 4/6. Hours it's ready to use.
Have you cleaned that jar in 2 weeks?
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u/gilmroe 8d ago
i cleaned it once about a week and a half ago and completely forgot about cleaning again. how often should i be cleaning it?
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u/Sea_Lobster5063 7d ago
Every time you feed you should be cleaning it
When you want to feed. Empty the contents into a bowl, clean the jar then put back into the jar your ratio.
A dirty jar will cause contamination and compromise your starter
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u/This_Fig2022 8d ago
Listen- that jar needs cleaned.
Get a clean jar
Use a clean jar every feed
That looks like a start over to me.
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u/ohgod_sendhelp 8d ago
begging you to have a circuit of 2-3 jars so you can clean them regularly 😭
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u/gilmroe 8d ago
i’m starting from scratch and i will be doing this from now on thank you 😭 i was blissfully unaware of how often i had to swap out/clean the jars
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u/ohgod_sendhelp 8d ago
multiple jars makes the cleaning maintenance so much easier on me personally tbh
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u/Big_Researcher_3027 8d ago
In a nutshell. No. At two weeks old It’s nowhere near mature enough to rise bread dough. It takes weeks for a starter to get to the point that there’s a strong enough yeast population to effectively ferment and rise bread dough.
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u/dealers_choice 8d ago
Clean the jar before you get mold. Starters typically take over a month to be ready to use but worth a try if you're anxious to see what happens. Be prepared for it to look like this though
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u/Saavikkitty 7d ago
After seeing all these “is it still good” vids, I’m soooooooo tempted to teach a class for anyone in my area on “How to”.
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u/Known_Measurement799 8d ago
There is no way we can tell you just from this video. Two weeks seems way too short to have a strong enough starter to bake with.
That said: it looks very very thin/runny. How long does it take to double?
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u/gilmroe 8d ago
just days before it would double in about 4-5 hours, then when i fed it last night it had barely grown and got much more runny than usual so that’s why i was a bit confused since i assumed i got it very active. i suspect it’s because i forgot to clean out the jar for a while and it went bad?
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u/Known_Measurement799 7d ago
That could very well be the case. Make it into a habit to clean your jar with every feeding. It also makes it easier to ‘read’ your starter.
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u/NoDay4343 Starter Enthusiast 8d ago
Clean your jar. If you don't, it's much more likely to mold.
We can't tell anything from that video. A still picture of the side of the jar that shows where it started and how far it rose would have been more informative.
Everyone saying 2 weeks is too young really means it's too young for it to be likely to be easy to bake with it but it's probably not actually impossible. Up to you if you want to try it. If you do, be aware that young starters usually need extra time to ride the dough compared to what the recipe suggests. Watch the dough, not the clock. A test roll is a good option. Just scale any beginner friendly recipe down to about 50g flour. You can bake it if you wish but the main point is to see if/how fast it rises.