Dead sourdough starter

[boudin noir]

I recently decided to venture into the world of sourdough. I wanted to use a wild yeast starter. Following directions I found on the web I mixed 1oz of water with 1 oz of flour. Mixed. Day 2 I mixed. Day 3 added same amounts of flour and water. A few bubbles. Day 4 more bubbles, fed it again. Day 5 and 6 still more bubbles and fed each day. Day 7 fewer bubbles, texture thinning, fed again. Added a small amount of dried yeast. Day 8 tried to make bread. Did not rise. What happened?

[avaserfi]

A healthy sourdough starter can take a couple weeks to really get going. It sounds like you had some activity, but the starter still needs some nurturing before you can really bake with it. From what I have read, bacterial growth occurs first creating the environment wild yeast need. Eventually, a balance between the wild yeast and bacteria is reached and the starter is ready to work. Of course, the baker can control this balance to some extent through feeding intervals, hydration, flour and other additives.

I would also avoid adding dry yeast to the starter, there is no purpose. Instead encourage the growth of wild yeast and bacteria by feeding regularly. Once it is healthy you can store the starter in the fridge between uses, just make sure to feed it once or twice before trying to bake with it. In my experience, once a starter doubles in size four hours after a feeding it is pretty healthy. A very healthy one will quadruple in size in the same time.

I also suggest you read this post on sourdough starters by Peter Reinhart. It discusses one potential issue with making a starter that plagued me when I first made mine a few years ago. In the end, the problem is just a bump in the road, but it is good to know about because it can slow the growth of your real starter as you culture an unwanted bacteria which masquerades as yeast. Eventually, the bacteria kills itself allowing for the proper microbial growth, but it can add a couple weeks to your process.

[boudin noir]

I read peter reinharts post. He seems to descrbe what happened to my starter pretty accurately. Thanks.