it was rising well and I removed some today and fed it 50ml water and 50g flour and mixed, not long later this happened. the smell has turned pretty pungent too. please help
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Why has my starter gone watery and started to stink? it was rising well and I removed some today and fed it 50ml water and 50g flour and mixed, not long later this happened. the smell has turned pretty pungent too. please help
Starter help 🙏Thanks for your help, just fed it.
You’re very welcome. Are you discarding?
Yes, all but 50g of it. I wasn't discarding enough daily
It’s still healthy as long as it doesn’t have red or pink stripes. If it does, toss it and start over. If it’s the same color, please don’t give up. Watery is hooch and it can be removed or stirred with the starter ( causes a more sour loaf) but I wouldn’t do it often. The ph is important. I would let it be for 12 hours (you could do 8-10 hours depending on) dump half and feed more flour than water. Feed it a good flour, like bread flour or whole wheat, even a light rye -
You can’t just dump a bit, you need to be keeping 50 mg, getting rid of the rest, and feed with 50gm each of water and flour. And a whole great like wheat or rye will help as there are more yeast spores on the hull that is ground into the whole grains. Even if you just use a portion of your feed. Also, unbleached flour, and filtered or bottled water so there isn’t any chlorine in it. ETA, and there really is no reason to have to use 50 gm, you can use 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 to use less flour while you are building your starter.
This is helpful, thank you!
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Are you in Atlanta?
No, why?
There is a massive boil notice with some nasty stuff in the pipes.
Your pics look like a 2-day unfed starter.
Havent a clue.
Always keep backups.
Is it pungent like sour, or does it smell like it’s gone bad? Visually, this is pretty normal for starters.
Very Sour smell , should it be this watery? It was rising well up until today
It’s common for it to smell anywhere from kind of sweet, to really vinegary, or even a little like acetone (which usually indicates it needs a feed and/or it’s too warm).
A couple questions: How old is it? How often do you feed it? What kind of temperature is it living in?
Its 4 days old now and I have fed it everyday. Temp around 15-18°C
that explains everything. if it smells like vomit after 4 days it’s expected. it’s basically spoiled food at this point. wait for the bad germs to die off in the acidity they spiked. you will see a loss of activity/rise. then keep feeding until a healthy yeast population is established and you have a good starter.
Mine did the same thing at about this age. It rose initially, then had a few days where it got hooch very quickly, then with regular feeding after a few more days it started to behave as expected (feed -> double in size -> slowly fall).
Keep with it, don't stress...
It's starving.
It’s just hooch, dump a bit out and feed. Your starter will be fine
Thank you, just fed it
This is a divisive issue but I’m in the “never dump out your hooch” camp. That’s the good stuff, I stir it back in!
This right here 👆
Your starter is starving. That liquid on top is called hooch and it only forms when the starter is very very hungry. Are you feeding it at least every 24 hours? Are you feeding it equal parts flour and water? Example: 50 grams starter, add 50g bread flour 50 g water, you can feed your starter every 12 hours and it will be stronger