Hello,
I write comments in-between:
Monte wrote:
> Starter condition (how do you grow your starter) and how do you keep/
> maintain it over time
>
> The main starter batch is fed probably one or two times a week.
If you are keeping it anywhere near or at room temperature, the way you
describe, you are damaging your starter.
Or - said differently, keeping it nowhere near an optimum.
If you have it in the fridge - there is no need to feed it that frequently.
The generation time of sourdough organisms is somewhere in the 1 - 3-ish
hour range meaning they double in that time, once they got started.
If you would feed it adequately and keeping your critters happy, you
would need to double the flour content of your culture maybe every 6 hours.
Not doing so will reduce activity
> The
> day before I'm going to bake I take a couple of tablespoons of the
> main batch and add 1 tbsp of rye and then bread flour to a total of 4
> ounces.
I am trying to guesstimate your setup and am metric, that's much easier
for me so, 1 oz is 28.3 g
Guessing your couple of Tb starter are maybe 4 at 15 g each would give
60 g starter, assuming 100 % hydration - 50/50 water/flour would give 30
g flour starter.
You add 4 oz - 75 g flour and approx tripling your starter flour -
that's fair.
> To that I add 6 ounces of water and let that get all bubbly,
> lots of small bubbles before refridgerating overnight. The next am I
> take it out, stir it a little and let it set 2-3 hours while it
> rebubbles. Adding 6 ounces to the dough.
>
>
From your initial post, you mention 14 oz flour ~ 400 g, your 6 oz
starter is about 100 g, 50 % flour, so your starter flour/total flour
ratio is about 10 % - that's a bit low, you could double that and maybe
have more sourdough "bang" in our initial dough.
> Temperature
> I'm not sure what your saying here about 80-90, is that when putting
> it in the dough?
During dough fermentation. Initial dough temperature sure plays a role
but will it still very much affect it in two hours? Probably not so much.
What I mean is to maintain a higher temperature during dough
fermentation. I do 30 C, that's 86 F in watertanks with aquarium
heaters. That took care of the whole temperature control issue. Usually
2 + 2 hours dough fermentation.
Before I tried other things - top of Computer Monitor (before LCD),
lowest oven temp and light in oven did not work - too high. I think
people are using heating pads, lamps in plastic boxes.
One thing is for sure - that sourdough growing is a sensitive issue - a
couple of degrees change the result noticeably.
> When I mix the dough, I try to have everything come
> in at an average of 72 degrees, adjusting the water temp for
> variations in other ingredients. Should that be higher?
>
Since you are lacking sourness, a higher temperature sure could help.
Your 72 F are 22 C, have a look the
http://samartha.net/SD/docs/DW-post1-4n.html#058
in that area there are the generation times of SD yeasts and bacteria.
It makes a difference, if you need double time to get to a particular
fermentation degree (= sourness).
- compare 4 hours to 8 hours dough fermentation.
> I'll try to make some starter at warmer temps to see what that does,
> although I'm not sure I can easily control the temp. Maybe no
> refridgeration.
When you refrigerate your starter during the starter growth period (a -
starter growing/multiplying, b - dough routine) you are doing something
counterproductive - retarding at a time where you actually want to do
everything to multiply the critters.
> When you say full grain are you referring to whole
> wheat?
>
Full grain flour, maybe should have written whole grain - any flour from
bread grain - wheat, rye, kamut, spelt - where everything - content of
the whole kernel is in the flour.
To sum it up, I think your issue is with starter keeping/growing.
> By the way, Thanks for responding.
>
My pleasure -
Sam