Saw somebody's mention of hooch - that it was a yellowish color. Now
I'm wondering about hooch.

First off - is hooch a good thing or is it something to be avoided,
even it means throwing lots of perfectly good starter down the toilet?

I've always thought hooch was okay and just another step in normal
keeping of a starter. I just don't bake that much in the heat of
summer and several weeks (up to a month) can go by before I remember
to feed my starter. Feeding consists of equal parts (by volume) of
stone ground rye flour and bottled water. The hooch that develops is
quite dark - almost black. I've always thought this was because of
the rye flour, but now I'm wondering if it's something to do with my
strain of beasties.

If this off topic or often discussed, please give this the appropriate
attention - I've only been following the group for about a month.
Please don't let the invalid email address color your
judgement/responses, I never use a valid address on usenet and am not
about to start now.

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 13:49:26 GMT, rhonda > wrote:

>Saw somebody's mention of hooch - that it was a yellowish color. Now
>I'm wondering about hooch.
>
>First off - is hooch a good thing or is it something to be avoided,
>even it means throwing lots of perfectly good starter down the toilet?
>
>I've always thought hooch was okay and just another step in normal
>keeping of a starter. I just don't bake that much in the heat of
>summer and several weeks (up to a month) can go by before I remember
>to feed my starter. Feeding consists of equal parts (by volume) of
>stone ground rye flour and bottled water. The hooch that develops is
>quite dark - almost black. I've always thought this was because of
>the rye flour, but now I'm wondering if it's something to do with my
>strain of beasties.
>
>If this off topic or often discussed, please give this the appropriate
>attention - I've only been following the group for about a month.
>Please don't let the invalid email address color your
>judgement/responses, I never use a valid address on usenet and am not
>about to start now.

Hi Rhonda,

In my experience, the hooch color does depend on the grain that you
are feeding the starter. My wheat starters (I have two...) produce
hooch that is light grayish. My rye starter produces hooch that is a
darker gray.

That said, you asked "is hooch a good thing or is it something to be
avoided."

I would say: "neither." It is not a good thing because it forms only
after the critters have eaten all the good food and are then starting
to each one another. It is not a bad thing because (within limits)
things get back to normal rather quickly when we feed the critters
some new grain and water.

In my routine, if I notice some hooch formation, it tells me that I
have neglected that starter a little to long...

HTH,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

rhonda wrote:
>
> ...I'm wondering about hooch.
>
> ...First off - is hooch a good thing or is it something to be avoided,
> even it means throwing lots of perfectly good starter down the toilet?

Hootch happens. All it means is that there is not enough
activity in the starter to keep the solids in suspension and in
time they settle towards the bottom and leave liquid on top.
This usually happens when most of the available food for the
critters is used up and/or waste products inhibit growth.
However in my new refrigerator it can get cold enough so that the
starter growth is slowed by temperature to a degree that hootch
forms.
>
> I've always thought hooch was okay and just another step in normal
> keeping of a starter.

I don't know how to say it better.

> ...quite dark - almost black. I've always thought this was because of
> the rye flour, but now I'm wondering if it's something to do with my
> strain of beasties.

It is partly the color from the flour and partly from the stage
of growth of the starter. For example, white flour start can
produce clear to yellow hootch that will darken with time. don't
worry too much about dark hootch if it smells like normal
stater. It is the brighter colors such as orange or pink that
indicate something is not normal.
>
>
> Please don't let the invalid email address color your
> judgement/responses, I never use a valid address on usenet and am not
> about to start now.

Why on earth should I suspend my judgement because you express
some aprehension about the logical evaluation of your actions?

Regards,

Charles

--
Charles Perry
Reply to:

** A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand **

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 14:29:18 GMT, Charles Perry >
wrote:

>Hootch happens.

Charles, Kenneth - thanks for the insights.

While lurking, I've found this group to be both entertaining and
educational. I've kept starters off and on over the years, but am way
more seat of the pants than the scientific, accurate approaches
documented here. Guess I need to clean up my act a bit.

Typically I use sourdough with other leavening agents, but made a
couple of all sourdough bricks last week. I expected longer rise
times, like around 4-6 hours in the bread pans, but finally gave up
and went to bed. By morning, the loaves were approaching the tops of
the pans, but had nowhere near the rise I'm used to (my typical loaves
include 1 cup of starter and a scant teaspoon of dried yeast - rise
time is about 1-1/2 hours in the pans at this time of year - the
kitchen is cool). Got a little "oven spring" (that's a new term for
me), but the loaves were pretty dense. More importantly, the flavor
was good and had more tang and bite than my typical loaves. I need to
learn how to get a less dense loaf, but retain the flavor.

Don't know that I have any specific questions right now - just need to
practice and eat.

"rhonda" > wrote in message =
...

> First off - is hooch a good thing or is it something to be avoided,
> even it means throwing lots of perfectly good starter down the toilet?

Better to make pancakes. Starter can clog plumbing. Also consider
that the starter you flush could keep a starving orphan alive one more
day or two, or maybe a month or two if you use the Silverton approach.

(Well, we'd have to instruct the little [fellow] how to make pancakes
so's he wouldn't eat the starter raw, maybe send along some Sterno
and a frying pan.)

> Feeding consists of equal parts (by volume) of stone ground rye=20
> flour and bottled water. =20

You could feed with white flour. It is more pure, and more likely
to keep the microflora constant.

> The hooch that develops is quite dark - almost black. =20

It is because your flour is dirty.

Dirty, dirty, dirty!

> I never use a valid address on usenet and am not about to=20
> start now.

There are some good reasons for hiding a valid munged email=20
address in you posts. One is that it shows that you are clever=20
enough to figure out how to do it. There are some others, too. =20
I will try to get them together as a list. I should email the list to=20
you.

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname>at bigfoot dot com

..

[[ This message was both posted and mailed: see
the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]

In article >,
Dick Adams > wrote:

> There are some good reasons for hiding a valid munged email
> address in you posts.

Agreed. One reason is you will get more answers. Writing a posting to
be read by thousands and archived forever takes more time, at least
from my viewpoint. Whereas if a responder can send a poster a quick
email the poster is more likely to get an answer.

Cheers,

Darrell

--
To reply, substitute .net for .invalid in address, i.e., darrell.usenet2 (at)
telus.net