On 11/20/11 2:47 PM, Mr Maj6th wrote:
> I contacted one of the best chefs I ever worked with, to tell me how
> to get a "sour" starter. He is German, but he now works at a four
> star hotel in India as the executive chef. His name is Willy Hauter;
> he is a specialist in breads, and spun sugar decoration. Give him the
> credit, not me.
>
> This was his reply:
>
> Okay, this Is the procedure. You start with simple dough.
>
> 450 G. BAKING FLOUR
> 225 G. BEER (use German wheat, naturally fermented like An Endanger
> Weiss bier
> mix this and cover with a wet towel.
>
> Keep it for 24 hours,
> day 2, cut the dough in half and throw it out, and replace it with :
> 225 G. BAKING FLOUR
> 112 G. BEER
> Continue procedure for 10 to 12 days

I think the phrase he's looking for instead of "naturally fermented" is
"bottle conditioned". It doesn't matter how natural the fermentation
process is if all the yeast is killed before the final product is
bottled. This procedure depends on viable yeast remaining in the bottle
and that is rare in today's beer world (but not unheard of). Actually,
a more straightforward way to obtain brewer's yeast would be to simply
buy brewer's yeast rather than a hit-and-miss procedure based on trace
yeast left in a commercial bottle of beer.

There are two ways I could interpret "continue procedure".

1. Halve the amount of flour and beer each time. Day three would get
112 grams of flour and 56 grams of beer. (Odd to use a unit of weight
to measure a liquid.)

2. Continue with 225 grams of flour and 112 grams of beer for 10-12 days.