Sourdough Hooch?!?! 😭

[ps1991]

Day 4 and I’ve woken to this...

Help please!

Stir it in and continue as normal

Will it be okay?

It should be. Starters do separate so I would see it as a sign its doing its job. When mine separates I know it needs feeding.

I’ve just give it a good mix, poured some away so I had 150g left and fed it with 100g flour 100g water.

Yeah just give it a good mix, I only pour the liquid off if it’s black. Just been left too long without a feed. I find smaller regular feeds of 50:50 or 60:60 work better with that amount of starter. 100 is quite a a lot if you only have 150g starter, it will be much milder if you intend to use it soon.

@AteAllTheAfterEights I’m totally new to this! So if I do another feed this evening how much would you recommend pouring off/putting in?

None, of you’ve fed it 100g today leave it until tomorrow. How regularly are you using it? Is it kept in fridge or out?

I’ve not used it at all yet because it’s only on day 4. It’s kept on the kitchen side.

That looks normal - it will have a strange alcoholic smell, just carry on!

Can I please hijack and ask advice from sourdough experts? I’ve been making bread for a couple of months, but I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing with maintaining the original starter. What proportions of starter/flour/water should you use? I know that the leaven needs more flour and water proportionately, but I have no idea if that applies to the mother. It sounds like you should do the opposite - any hints?

It’s hard to say, as it gets bigger it does need more, I keep my active starter in a pretty small pot so only feed her about 40g flour and 40g water each day. If the pot starts to get full I pour it off into the excess jar in the fridge which I use for crumpets/crackers, anything that can used starved starter. I’m only making 2x2 loaves a week though so don’t need to have a load active.

For my levain I use 80g active starter with 60g flour and 60g water the night before I start my bread- that does 2 loaves

Thanks AteAll. The recipe I use needs over300g of leaven so I feed it quite a lot then. Mine’s in a small pot as well, and I don’t usually have much discard as I judge the amounts based on that. I bake 2 loaves every other day-ish, so I tend to feed it the morning after starting the sponge. I’ve just realised, the water counts in the equation as well, so 40g of each is probably fine - thanks again! Sorry for the stream of consciousness!

Ohhh this has been on my list for days to try so reading with interest

Just got back from Tesco and now it has liquid on the top 😩

It does that - don't panic!

@AteAllTheAfterEights corps you kindly share your loaf recipe???I started my starter today. Op how long have you been going
There's a lot of information out there, I think it's easy to be over whelmed

Sorry just seen its 4 days 🙄

Whilst I've been making sourdough starter for around 8 years now one thing I've never understood is the float test - my starters only ever passed the float test a few hours after feeding - is that normal?

What I will say is that a liquid on the top and overly alcoholic smell just means it's a hungry starter - natural yeast is converting stuff to carbon dioxide and any sucralose it comes across will turn to alcohol. Just give it a good old feed. As other ppl have said, dark coloured liquid should be disposed of.

lec7grs yes, thets normal. When you want to use it, you feed first, leave a few hours then use.

@myshitisreal

Night 1 80g active starter, 60g bread flour, 60g mix together and cover with cling film

Next morning add 1kg bread flour and 600g warm water and mix. Leave for an hour then add 24g table salt and stretch and fold in on itself until combined

Over the course of the day I stretch and fold in on itself maybe another 4 times then shape into 2 loaves and cover in baskets in fridge over night

Next morning I heat a cast iron pot to 220c the bake with lid on for 20mins and lid off for 20mins

AteAll that looks like a lovely simple recipe. I’ve tried three or four now but keep going back to one from an online bread magazine. Might try yours next - it’s a lot of trial and error but every loaf has actually been delicious.
While this thread is going, I’m a bit concerned that my starter has taken on a slightly ‘off’, cheesy smell, maybe even vaguely ammonia. I noticed it a couple of days ago and gave baked with it but wondering if it’s best to throw it out and start again, since presumably I’ve got bacteria growing somehow?

Maybe, my definitely smells ‘beer-y’ if that helps.

I didn’t start my started though, it was given to me so I’m just trying to keep it alive

Thank you @AteAllTheAfterEights that's great. On the first line is your 60g for water? Do you use warm Or cold water???

Have you ever tried it with plain flour? I'm going to try get bread flour in next weeks shop, but going on the basis of plain for now

Warm water, no always bread flour- I often mix 500g white and 500g malt/wholemeal

Update: last night I poured off most of the hooch and discarded my starter until I had 50g left. Then I mixed with 50g flour and 50g water. This morning a mixed in another 50g flour and 50g water. Just now 3:15pm I noticed it was going hoochy again so I discarded back to 50g and added 50g water/flour again. It bubbles a bit but not very much :(

To start with I was using Tesco plain flour. But yesterday I got this flour (pic) which I think will be better because of the rye?