12 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:I've been maintaining a liquid levain for a few weeks now, but this weekend I was out of town for three days. Rather than try to find a levain-sitter I used the refrigerator technique, putting it into the fridge right after its last feeding and then taking it out and feeding it again as soon as I got home. So while not strictly-speaking "inactive", the levain I had for this recipe was definitely in the "hangry" category.
So Chris are you the expert levain person now? Did you often get a layer of hooch in your levain?
I'm 36 hours into my levain and I've had pooch since 12 hours - I've been stiring and shaking it to reincorporate it. I'm not seeing any bubbles yet, but something is causing the hooch.
Also - Is this correct use? When I take 3/4 off the levain to feed it - this 3/4 discard I'm supposed to use to bake bread. But it's not going to be at mature level - so do I feed the 3/4 separately and use it 12-16 hours later? If this is all clear in the book I'm missing it - I've read everything I could find in multiple volumes - but it's not hard to miss.