Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter

[Essen1]

With deepest regrets, I have to inform the board that my wild yeast starter, and therefor the entire experiment, has prematurely croaked. 

After a few attempts to revive it, all efforts were of CPR were suspended. The starter was unfortunately unbringbackable.

But...there are also good news to this which makes this epic loss more bearable. I relinquished over the weekend and bought the SF sourdough starter from sourdo.com. It arrived today.

Activation will start when I've built an adequate homemade proofing box per instructions from Ed Wood.

 

[Jackie Tran]

What a shame Mike.  What a huge lost.  That starter really had a lot of potential.  He could have been a contender...

At least you got a new SD starter.     Are you planning to make bread, pizza, or both with it?

[Essen1]

Chau,

The loss was heartbreaking and tragic. Thank you for your sympathies.

Yes, he could have been a contender...maybe a moment of silence will make it easier. But I digress.

To answer your question, I'm planning on using it for both, bread and pizza. I know from my Ischia starter that Ed Wood's starters are high quality and I always dabbled with - no, not witchcraft! - sourdough in one form or the other. I just was never really serious about it. But a sourdough pizza crust, some fluffy little thing, is intriguing.

We'll see how it goes. First up is the proofing box, though. Gonna get the necessary items tomorrow.

[DenaliPete]

Its a real shame that your starter croaked.  I do wonder if it would have thrived better with a few days of rye flour and pineapple juice though.

But then, like you said, Eds products are very good quality.

[Essen1]

Its a real shame that your starter croaked.  I do wonder if it would have thrived better with a few days of rye flour and pineapple juice though.

But then, like you said, Eds products are very good quality.

Perhaps. In the beginning I thought dragging some unwashed, organic grapes through the mix to get the wild yeast off the skins but decided against it.

Can't wait to get going with Ed's starter.

[Essen1]

I have been working with the SD starter for the last three days and it is, so far, a difficult one to work with.

But I think I am finally seeing some light.

Here are some pics, ranging from this afternoon, before the feeding (1st & 2nd) and the rest was taken four hours later, after the feeding.

Smell was mildly yeasty, mellow and pleasant.

[Matthew]

I have been working with the SD starter for the last three days and it is, so far, a difficult one to work with.

But I think I am finally seeing some light.

Here are some pics, ranging from this afternoon, before the feeding (1st & 2nd) and the rest was taken four hours later, after the feeding.

Smell was mildly yeasty, mellow and pleasant.

Hey Mike,
SF sourdough is definitely one of the hardest starters to work with but once you get it going it has very good leavening & great flavor; much more sticky than other starters.  I use some liquid starter to make a thick sponge.   It remains strong & healthy in the fridge for well over a month.  The beauty is that it's maintenance free (doesn't require any feeding) & the flavor/complexity improves every week. 
Your starter looks good, I'm assuming better than our last exchange.  The only thing that I would do differently is transfer it to a 1L wide mouth mason jar.  That way you'll be able to judge the level of activity much more accurately.

Matt

[Essen1]

Hey Mike,
SF sourdough is definitely one of the hardest starters to work with but once you get it going it has very good leavening & great flavor; much more sticky than other starters.  I use some liquid starter to make a thick sponge.   It remains strong & healthy in the fridge for well over a month.  The beauty is that it's maintenance free (doesn't require any feeding) & the flavor/complexity improves every week. 
Your starter looks good, I'm assuming better than our last exchange.  The only thing that I would do differently is transfer it to a 1L wide mouth mason jar.  That way you'll be able to judge the level of activity much more accurately.

Matt

Matt,

I did split the starter per instructions that came with it from Ed Wood that's why it was in a different container. The other half is in a 1l mason jar. Just fed them again so hopefully it'll be more active by the time I get home tonight.

Thanks for the heads-up on this one. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

[Essen1]

Finally!

The starter is active. It 'exploded' last night after yesterday's evening feed and doubled in size within a couple of hours. I had to stir it to get it down a bit but it doubled again overnight.

Just in time for the weekend.

[Essen1]

Jesus!

Maybe my starter's a little too active? It pushed itself through the tightly closed lid of the mason jar...

[DenaliPete]

are you feeding 1:1 or 3/4:1?

Starter looks healthy.

[Essen1]

Pete,

I feed one cup of flour and 3/4 cup water every 12 hours.