Help with Sourdough Starter

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Help with Sourdough Starter

Postby Augustus on Fri Dec 07, 2018 4:07 pm

Hello, everybody.

I'm trying to make a sourdough starter. I'm yet trying to atract the yeasts to my flour, honey and water batter and I need some help with it, because I've made one and some ants falled into, so I throw it out (afraid the ants may have contaminated it with the wrong microbes) and made another, wich is in day 1 (made it yesterday [06/12/2018]) and this morning [07/12/2018] when I checked it, it was already thick, full of bubbles and got, again, but this time less, ants and a banana fly in (I removed all of them from the batter). My question is: do I discard it and start another, or let it follow?

I covered with a strainer and put it in a tray with water to avoid the ants, but seems that the strainer holes are a bit large, so I get now one with thinner holes.

It's not smelling bad, rotten, but smells like honey and a little bit sour (it's actually pleasant).

Probably you guys already know this, but here in Rio is VERY hot. Typical day temperature is about 86ºF to 107,6ºF.

If it's needed I can upload some photos.

Thanks for the help!
Augustus
 
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Re: Help with Sourdough Starter

Postby Christopher Weeks on Mon Dec 10, 2018 8:18 am

I don't know how your temperature is going to make keeping a sourdough starter different. As to the bugs, I'd probably just fish them out and keep going. But I also keep bugs out of my starter by rubber-banding fine cheesecloth (butter muslin) over the mouth of the jar. That keeps out even Drosophila.
Christopher Weeks
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Re: Help with Sourdough Starter

Postby Augustus on Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:14 pm

Christopher Weeks wrote:I don't know how your temperature is going to make keeping a sourdough starter different. As to the bugs, I'd probably just fish them out and keep going. But I also keep bugs out of my starter by rubber-banding fine cheesecloth (butter muslin) over the mouth of the jar. That keeps out even Drosophila.


Cristopher, thanks for the advices. Sorry for the delay on answering... had a busy week. Well, I've taken out the bugs and protected the starter with a thin sieve. I just needed to give time to the starter to do it's work and today I could make the first loaves of bread. The taste was amazing, but the texture become soooo hard hahaha. I need to improve my baking technics.
Augustus
 
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Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:30 am

Re: Help with Sourdough Starter

Postby Christopher Weeks on Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:22 am

Sounds like a good start! I bake only whole-grain bread, so I'm familiar with dense loaves...always more to learn!
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