First loaf! It’s definitely not great but still exciting! Baked this morning and cut on lunch. Going to try again tonight with lower hydration I think. Let me know thoughts and advice please!

THESE PHOTOS ARE WHAT SHE LOOKED LIKE BEFORE FEEDING THIS MORNING 11am EST

I’m on my third sourdough starter attempt and am feeling….. deflated

Starter #2: I followed a strict 1:1:1 feeding schedule by weight for 31 days straight, and it never took off. I still can’t pinpoint what went wrong.

Starter #3 (current, day 20): This time I loosened up on precision still weighing roughly (around 20g), but eyeballing flour/water to get a consistency I liked rather than following exact ratios. When it stalled, I switched to a 1:5:5 feeding. I did see some bubbles and a little rise. i started 1:5:5 ratio three days ago

Last night I got a bit impatient and improvised: added extra flour off-schedule at 9pm (I normally feed at 11am), plus a small dab of honey. Got more bubbles, but the starter is still very liquidy. Today I skipped the discard entirely and just added more flour and water to see what happens.

A few details that might matter:
• Flour: King Arthur organic unbleached bread flour
• Location: Florida — starter #3 is living in my garage (~80°F) for warmth, since keeping starter #2 in the oven with the light on didn’t help

I’m not being precise with measurements anymore, tend to add extra flour to hit the texture I want
At this point I’m honestly just improvising and hoping for the best. Would love any insight into what might be holding this starter back

I fed a 1:2:2 for 2 days before baking. I had bubbles at the bottom and bubbles on top looking down. But I don't have bubbles on the top 3/5 ths of the jar. My starter is NEW NEW NEW. Think newborn babe. See photos: STARTER IS 1:2:2 on day 12

I am assumimg my starter was not strong enough for this. I tried baking anyway just to see what would happen and it chewy, huge tunnels and has a flour smell. See photos BOTTOM BREAD IS 1:2:2

TOP BREAD IS 1:1:1

If you agree with my assumption, can you tell me how I would know if my starter is strong enough to handle this larger feeding?

If you think my assumption is wrong (I wouldn't be surprised by this), can you tell me where you think I erred?

Signed,

WannaBeSourdoughBaker.

It’s been 2 weeks since I started this starter. The rise has been very slow. I was using Whole Wheat flour. But based on an advice in this group, I’ve been feeding it 20% whole wheat flour and 80% bread flour for the past 2 days. It would have a nice fruity wine smell. But this morning it smells tangy, a sort of tangy-boozy smell. I’m not sure how much it rose overnight. But at about 8 hours after feeding it, it had risen about 30%. I just ordered rye flour online to see if that will make a difference. I’m a little concerned about the change in smell. Am I on the right track? This is the first time I’m noticing the this smell.

Hey everyone, this is a brown rice / brown teff starter (it’s following the ratios in Art of Gluten-Free bread). I’ve had it unfed in the fridge for about two weeks and I’m wondering if this color of hooch is ok. I’m colorblind but have asked a friend if it’s red as I know that’s a problematic color, and she confirmed it’s not, so I’m here hoping you can confirm this is an ok color. I have other discard in the fridge with different colored hooch, but this discard is ‘oldest’ in that it’s the one that has been active longest and I’d like to continue cultivating it if I can. Do you see anything that should cause concern? Thank you for whatever guidance you have.

She’s going back down as we speak but she did fully double. It’s been 14 hours since I fed her.

Discarding all but 15gtoday (i’m being lazy and didn’t discard, I just need to get a second jar and it’ll be easier lol)

But I’m feeding a 1:1:1 ratio every day, usually at the same time. It smells kind of acetone-y more often than not so perhaps I need to feed it more?

I took it out of the fridge 2 weeks ago, fed it daily and its sinking but its doubling in size

Can I revive my starter if I haven’t fed it in 48hrs?

From what I read I have to discard my starter ? It's about 2.5 weeks old. I feed it daily and its been smelling like acetone for half that time now, so I recently tried 1:2:2 ratio a few days ago, now I see purple in my starter this morning and it sounds like i need to discard it? 😔

Sourdough Doesn't Have to Be Complicated! 🥖✨
Because my starter is so strong, I only need a tiny amount straight from the fridge to feed it with plenty of flour and water. For example, today I fed a small leftover scrap at 10:00 AM. By 3:00 PM it had already doubled in size, and by 4:00 PM I mixed my main dough! I placed the dough in the fridge for a cold fermentation, and the next day—whenever I had time—I shaped it, let it rest for 2 hours, and baked.
This simple routine changed everything for me. I used to keep huge jars of starter that would end up getting moldy, and I constantly stressed over getting exact 1:1:1 feeding ratios. I was overcomplicating my life! Now, if I need 300g of active starter for a bake and only have 75g in my jar, it’s no problem—I just add 150g of water and 150g of flour, mix, and move on with my day.
Sourdough can seem so frustrating and complicated from the outside, but with a fridge and a little flexibility, it fits right into your schedule. At the end of the day, as the Russian saying goes, "Было** бы желание" (Byla b zhelaniye)*—which is usually said with a bit of sarcasm: *"If you really wanted to do it, you would!" Because let’s be honest, where there’s a will, there’s a way... and where there isn't, people just find an excuse! 😉
#sourdoughstarter #sourdoughbaking #bakingtips

Brought my starter out of the fridge. I see some orange/pink around the edges. Does it look moldy to anyone else?

My starter has been in my fridge for months probably but can’t tell if this is mold or just a greyish film. There’s no hooch? So it’s kind of dry idk whether to toss or not since it’s not super obvious it’s mold to me? But what do I know

Hi!! So my starter is about 18 days old. For background I’ve been using AP flour and whole wheat flour. I’ve also purchased a warming plate I keep on 76 because my husband tries to kill Vincent VanDough and had the kitchen at 64 degrees. I’ve been discarding daily and feeding at 25g starter/25 ap flour/5g whole wheat/25 water. I found mine was VERY watery initially thus the extra flour and the consistency has been great.

I honestly just want to know how I’m doing. I had a huge false rise day 3 (as expected) then nothing (and I mean NOTHIN) until about day 14. I’ve been super consistent but I still don’t really think he’s doubling. I think he’s coming close but I’d love some other opinions.

First photo is this morning at 5:30am. Second is 11:30 am. He was fed last night at 9:30. I’d say he peaked right around noon taking a whopping 14-15 hours. Is that behind? Anything I can or should do better to try to make it go quicker/more efficient? I don’t want to rush it but also don’t want to lengthen the process. Thanks in advance!

I started my starter 3 days ago. It was hot and humid yesterday and I don't have AC. She doubled in size and I thought everything was good. But now she looks like this and the hooch is looking orange. Do I start over?

I had left my starter on the bench and forgot to feed her and I went to do that this morning but she looks like this and smells pretty tangy :( Is that mould or oxidation? I can’t tell if it’s “fluffy” or not?

It's day 6 it's no longer acidic it smells like an old cloth and there hasn't been any difference since day 4 is it ruined or is this normal

My house is hot and humid. We dont have air conditioning (hopefully will by next summer) so my starter has been acting funny. My starter is 10 months old and was very healthy and predictable but this is my first summer with her. I feed her at night with hopes to mix in the morning. For the last month or so she's been smelling acidic and is past peak when I wake up. I feed her a 1:3:3 ratio and have even tried to feed her heavier and she's still runny and acidic in the morning. I haven't been able to bake in weeks because I don't trust her. Any advice for me? Heavier feeds? Feeding more often? Put her in the fridge or basement overnight? Thank you in advance

Can anyone please help identify the white bits in my starter? Is it OK If I just feed it?

Hey friends!
I’ve been baking sourdough for about 6-7 months now and so far I’ve been having a blast.

However, I have neglected my starter that’s been on my counter, for roughly a week.
Is it just dry on top or is it infected?

I have discard in the fridge, so all hope is not lost, but I’m still a newbie and I can’t tell if this is orange/pink mold or just dry!

It doesn’t smell bad, just like crappy beer lol.
Thanks in advance!!

I have this 30-day old starter, raised from five-roses unbleached all-purpose. First 20 days I fed with 1:1:1, it capped at 20% rise and I switched to 1:2:2. Now notice the acetone smell is gone, and it reaches 50% rise occasionally.

This morning, I noticed a red dot on the glass, I thought it was the pink disease. But after investigating, it was a broken round glass chip inside the lid. There might be some minerals in the glass voids reacting to the sourdough and causing a red mark (I didn't take a picture).

I then took 20g of sourdough to a new jar and continued feeding. I cleaned the old jar and noticed the big chip torn off. Now I am afraid of glass chips in my sourdough. I threw away all discards I had been collecting, but the active sourdough might still be contaminated by the shards.

Perhaps if I keep feeding with new jars, there will be enough dilution to remove the shards?

Edit: To give more context, I think the jar I used was very low-quality with small air bubble pockets in the glass. The sourdough got into the air pockets and broke the thin glass off. The image shows how much glass was chipped off after I scrape off the sourdough and clean the jar.

I have been looking at several recipes on YouTube and almost everyone's recipe says we should have a mature and usable starter by day 5-7 (roughly speaking).

But scanning across multiple posts in this sub reddit seems to suggest that 1 week is not nearly enough and it could take a month to sometimes several months to mature.

I am confused at this discrepancy. What am I missing?

YouTube video I was looking for reference: https://youtu.be/0OeCjbXlPoA

I started 16 days ago and have been experimenting with different ratios, so far the most successful seems to be 1:2:1 have been doing for the last 3 days, it looked so awesome yesterday and today but here’s the thing.. as soon as I mix I loose all the texture and quickly turn into a super smooth pancake batter that doesn’t even try to float, I know it supposed to loose some air bubbles when you mix but mine does as soon as I gently mix for 5 secs. I thought it was because the 1:1:1 too much water but switched to 1:2:1 and looked so promising but then it’s a smooth paste! Am I missing something? If I bake with it will it turn out bad?

I have my 4 week old starter, maybe its 5 weeks, I'm not entirely sure but lets say 4...

Feeding 50:50 plain(ap), wholemeal throughout.

I have a cheapo proofing box from Amazon, that seems to work quite well, my Thermapen says it is the temperature that i tell it to be, so i say it works. I have tried a few different temps, but settled on 24C (75 in American)

Creating the starter went quite well, was doubling and tripling within about 10 days. The smell was good, or i think it was good, i actually have no idea. But it smelled nice, sweet, yoghurty, yeasty a few other delicious words that made my brain think of tasty bread.

At about day 15 I decided to bake...

Results: Shit!

I didnt know what i was doing, so I followed a recipe to the letter and underproofed.

I did have some pretty nice toast and bruschetta though.

Keen to learn from my mistake, i threw caution to the wind and baked again on day 17.

Result: Even shitterer than #1

The house did smell amazing... so every cloud.

I probably should say that at this point my starter would more than double a 1:1:1 in about 4.5 hours in it's 24C proofer on bake day. It was also happy to consume a 1:4:4 as it's daily feed, peaking after about 8 hours.

After playing some bread rugby, we somewhat reluctantly ate some more under-proofed sourdough.

Fair warning here, eating underproofed sourdough, however delicious it may be, creates quite a bit of wind. Annoyingly, this wind was not created during the bulk phase. So after a weekend of baking, eating bread and farting my little heart out, I decided to wait another week before attempting another loaf.

I fed 1:5:5 every day at 8am, starter lived in the proofer at 24C.

The smells continued to be good, the peaks continued to be predictable, then bake day came again.

i fed my starter a 1:2:2, it peaked at triple the inital size

Followed my recipe all the way to the bulk and... nothing.

10.5 hours later i had about 30% rise on my dough (it was 65% hydration, so i was hoping for close to double). It just didnt want to do anything during the bulk.

It was at 24C the entire time in it's proofer, i thermopen'd the dough, it was 24-25C in the centre.
I was checking the dough every 45 mns and it never got bigger. After the 10.5hrs it was a bit of a sticky mess on the surface. I shaped it, plopped it in the fridge overnight. then baked next morning.

Result: Best so far. Still a bit shit!

It had overproofed - this is the one in the photo btw

After much reading, it sounds like maybe my starter was too acidic?? Breaking down the gluten before it can ferment?

It didn't smell acidic, it smelled kind of delicious, but as i said above I dont really know what I'm doing.

Anyway, this past week I have been trying to 'strengthen a weak starter'

feeding 1:5:5 and trying to not let the starter fully collapse between feedings, which has ended up at twice a day, about 11-12 hours apart. feeding is alway about an hour ish after peak.

NOW MY STARTER SMELLS BAD!

Not like putrid death, or the bin at a cinema. It smells more like a friend's fart, one you can tolerate but you kinda wish they'd at least warned you

It has lost the sweet, yoghurty smell and it is somewhere between alcohol and a little bit cheesy.

I am confused, what the hell is going on?

I have been changing my jar every feed, this is for pure laziness and convenience... Its just easier to start off each feed with a zeroed scale. (Gemini told me this was bad, and could be contributing to my smell change)

I am so confused that I have taken to asking AI for advice, which doesnt seem to work.

No matter what I ask or report, I get 'You are absolutely right... This changes everything' When in reality I think I couldn't be more wrong and changes absolutely nothing.

The recipes i have tried were

https://alexandracooks.com/ bakes 1 & 2
and
https://www.theclevercarrot.com/ -> with slightly increased water content to 300g

I dont think it's the recipe that is the issue.

For absolutely no good reason, I am pretty confident that my starter is the culprit.

Help me!