On Nov 12, 8:56 am, Sam > wrote:
> Will wrote:
> > Plus... doing 8 levels of refreshment to get
> > back to square one
>
> What were you doing with your "fridge" method?
>
> Sam


Nothing unusual. After refreshment, when the starter was active, I'd
add sufficient new flour (of whatever type was consistent for the
starter: rye to rye, red wheat to red wheat, etc) make a small dough-
ball, size of walnut, and store in clean glass lab jar, in the
refrigerator... on the door. Starters all labelled and numbered for
sequential use.

When I had 6 starters, I'd rotate in sequence, always using the oldest
first. I bake 2-3 times a week (hungry teenagers), so the starters
might sit idle for 2 weeks, sometimes three. They always worked,
always proofed the dough, and so on... but like I said up-thread, the
smell changed. And I'm a dedicated dough sniffer. So I suspected
critter drift.

For fun, I put a couple of dupes away for several months (in firm
dough-ball form). They survived. And that's what I'd do if I was going
to South America for longish time.

Your advice several years ago was to focus on the dough-side... and
after some reflection I decided to go that route. So rather than
maintain a family of starters, I reduced to 2... divorced the dough
hook and went native... shelf storage for starters, long ferments for
dough, s&f's for crumb.

Very recently I switched to really CHEAP AP flour. My favorite, Dakota
Maid, had risen from $.79 for 5 pounds to $3.29 for 5 pounds. I
decided it might be time to learn what the typical European
experiences with weak protein levels. And I gotta say... it takes a
big adjustment. Generic store brand AP is really for cake or biscuits.
Getting that to gas correctly for decent crumb takes real doing. It's
an experiment I'd highly recommend to everyone here. And it's a
humbling experience... I didn't know the half of it.