Finally Am Trying to Activate My Starters

[TXCraig1]

I also did the stupid thing of trying to activate two at one time, so I have to be extra careful not to contaminate the other one.
Nothing usually goes smooth for me the first time, so I don’t know if I am out of the woods yet.

I did the same thing. Just work on one at a time and keep things clean in between, and you'll be fine.

Craig

[norma427]

I did the same thing. Just work on one at a time and keep things clean in between, and you'll be fine.

Craig

Craig,

Thanks again for helping me with activating these sour dough cultures.  I have been trying to keep everything clean and even have been using bleach in concentrates that I use at market to keep my things sanitized, but you never know when you might make a mistake.  Good to hear I am not the only one that tried to activate two sour dough mixes at once.  I always do things the complicated way. 

Norma

[norma427]

These are pictures of how my starters are doing this morning.  Before I fed and water them, I was wondering if anyone can tell me how long starters usually take to become active enough to be then placed in the refrigerator.  I don’t think I was feeding my starters enough, and now am going to make sure I try to feed them every 6 hours.  The liquid is still clear on the top and its looks like they are okay, but I have many questions about them.  Do I still keep feeding the amount of water and flour it says in the book and just keep feeding every 6 hours?

Any ideas would be appreciated,

Norma

[Matthew]

These are pictures of how my starters are doing this morning.  Before I fed and water them, I was wondering if anyone can tell me how long starters usually take to become active enough to be then placed in the refrigerator.  I don't think I was feeding my starters enough, and now am going to make sure I try to feed them every 6 hours.  The liquid is still clear on the top and its looks like they are okay, but I have many questions about them.  Do I still keep feeding the amount of water and flour it says in the book and just keep feeding every 6 hours?

Any ideas would be appreciated,

Norma

Hi Norma,
Keep feeding at room temperature every 9-12 hours.  They are ready once they increase in volume by at least 2 inches within 2 hour of feeding.  Your not looking for big soapy looking bubbles rather a pancake batter like consistency with little tiny bubbles.  If you are still getting hooch then they are not ready.
The picture below was taken a while back when I activated mine.  The line indicates the volume of the mixture prior to the feeding.  When it looks like this, it's fully activated & ready to refrigerate.

[norma427]

Matt,

Thank you for going into detailed explanations on feeding the starters and also how much they should increase in volume before they can go into the refrigerator.  I appreciate you took the time to explain this all to me.  These starters are mysterious and hopefully I will get them activated to be able to use them in pizzas and bread.

The pictures of how your starters should look are great!

Norma

[norma427]

Fed again about an hour ago.

Norma

[norma427]

I had to run some errands this evening and when I returned home, I was pleasantly surprised. 
Can anyone tell me if my starters are now ready to be put in the refrigerator, after I clean up the mess? 

Thanks,

Norma

[Jackie Tran]

Just a few more feedings should do it.    The goal should be to have the starter expand so violently that it cracks the container.     Nice Norma.

[norma427]

Just a few more feedings should do it.    The goal should be to have the starter expand so violently that it cracks the container.     Nice Norma.

Jackie Tran,

You almost made me fall off my chair laughing!     Thanks for saying nice.  I appreciate that after the evening I had.   

Norma

[Jackie Tran]

Norma - I'm glad I can provide some entertainment value. 

[norma427]

Norma - I'm glad I can provide some entertainment value. 

Jackie Tran,

You always do provide me with entertainment.    You are so funny. honest and at the same time so serious about your pizzas.     I always enjoy what you post. 

Norma

[Jackie Tran]

Awhhh...you're making me blush and that's not easy for an asian dude. 

[norma427]

Awhhh...you're making me blush and that's not easy for an asian dude. 

Jackie Tran,

I worked with many Asian people years ago and they also had me laughing all the time, but I never saw them blush.  I would have liked to see that.    Thanks for your confidence on my starters.  I didn't know if they would make it.

Norma

[TXCraig1]

Norma,

You have arrived. I know great things are soon to flow from those frothing cups that have runneth over.

Craig

[norma427]

Craig,

I am glad I have arrived.  Since I never tried either one of these starters in a pizza or bread, it will be interesting to see how they evolve over time and what different flavors, leavening and textural results I can achieve with them.  I still had a “wild yeast starter”, that I had stored in the refrigerator for a long while.  Toby had helped me get that started.  That “wild yeast starter” was started with rye flour.  It still had the original bubbles in it.  I just threw it away last night.  It kinda made me sad because that was my first venture into starters.  I am looking forward to finding out all about these starters.  I hope I can take care of them properly.

Norma

I want to give special thanks to everyone in this thread that has helped me out with these starters.  I didn’t even think they would get started because I never had them refrigerated from the day they arrived.  I had just kept them on a shelf in my bedroom closet, still sealed in the envelope.  They were sent to me on March 30th, 2009.  That was even before I made my first pizza.  When I was just a guest on this forum, I saw all the members that were using starters and that is why I bought these starters.  After reading all that went into making pizzas, I thought there was no way I was going to understand all this with using starters and just basically learning what all goes into making a pizza.  That is why the starters have been sitting and waiting for so long.  So many members have helped me on my journey into pizza making with all their ideas and what they post about making pizzas.  I will now be able to see first hand what wild yeast from antiquity can produce. 

Thanks to everyone that has helped me on my journey in making pizza and all the members that are still helping me to learn.  It has been a great journey. 

Norma

[Matthew]

I had to run some errands this evening and when I returned home, I was pleasantly surprised. 
Can anyone tell me if my starters are now ready to be put in the refrigerator, after I clean up the mess? 

Thanks,

Norma

How long did it take to get to this point after you fed it?

Matt

[norma427]

Matt,

I am not sure, because I was running errands (for about an hour and a half), but from the time I fed the starters until I arrived home from the errands it was 4 hours.  I did see before I left that the starters had risen about 3 inches from the rubber band.

Norma

[Matthew]

Matt,

I am not sure, because I was running errands (for about an hour and a half), but from the time I fed the starters until I arrived home from the errands it was 4 hours.  I did see before I left that the starters had risen about 3 inches from the rubber band.

Norma

I'm assuming that by this point the culture has been refrigerated, correct?  Did you feed it prior to refrigerating it?

Matt

[norma427]

I'm assuming that by this point the culture has been refrigerated, correct?  Did you feed it prior to refrigerating it?

Matt

Matt,

Yes, I did refrigerate the starters.  The book didn't tell me to feed them before refrigerating, I only thought you feed the starters before refrigerating after activating them with a feed and then another feed before refrigerating them.  Did I do something wrong?  That book isn't the best in giving instructions.

Thanks,

Norma

[Matthew]

Matt,

Yes, I did refrigerate the starters.  The book didn't tell me to feed them before refrigerating, I only thought you feed the starters before refrigerating after activating them with a feed and then another feed before refrigerating them.  Did I do something wrong?  That book isn't the best in giving instructions.

Thanks,

Norma

No, you didn't do anything wrong.  However, within that 4 hour period alot of the flour nutrients could of been exhausted leading to semidormancy.  It's best to refrigerate the culture within 2 hours after the final feeding while activating.  The theory behind this is that you want a high concentration of organisms present prior to refrigeration.  More active cells = a stronger & more viable culture upon warming.
I don't claim to be the authority on sourdough but it wouldn't hurt at this point to take it out of the fridge & feed it one more time.

Matt