Sourdough Question

[BusyMummyof3]

This may be a very silly question but I've never made sourdough before and I am not sure if I'm doing it correctly.

Should the starter for sourdough smell like off beer? It is really yeasty smelling but smells very sour as well.

Also, should the consistency be like uncooked cake mix and how do you know it's still alive?

Hope someone can help as I'm not sure if I should throw it away and start again.

Could you give some more details?

-how old is it (the more developed the starter, the more"sour" it will smell)

• has it been kept at room temperature (will impact how many time you should feed the starter)?
• when is the last time you fed it?
• what are you using to refresh/feed your starter?

My experience is that it does has a sour smell but not tangy. My starter is like thick pancake dough. You know it is still alive if, when you feed it, the starter doubles itself in volume. It should be quite bubbly (but not frothy, as this means there is probably too much water.

Thanks for the reply sofaqueen.

It's only a week old and I've been feeding it every other day. It's at room temperature and I've just checked it and it looks a bit better than yesterday as I can now see lots of bubbles and it's doubled in size. It was really the smell that was putting me off as it's quite pungent. I am using rye flour.

Do you know if I'd be able to use it now or should I wait longer?

Thx

Sounds ok to me!
When I made rye sourdough bread it did taste quite strong though - I loved it but dh was not keen.

Go for it!

I have a starter that I use for rye and brown and white - but I always feed with white in between loaves.

you are basically trapping and feeding a wild yeast - so it needs the right conditions to grow without the wrong bacteria taking over and making it go mouldy.
good webpage here

Sound OK, but you should be feeding the starter every day (some people say twice a day, but that is just too much for me).

To ensure you have stater just in case something happens to this starter, I'd take one cup out the next time you go to feed the starter and, instead of throwing it out, I'd put it into a glass jar and add 1/2 cup of flour and just a bit less than 1/2 cup water and put it into the fridge. This reserve starter only needs to be fed once a week.

I feed mine a teaspoon of flour and a dash of water each day.

I make bread about twice a week, and use the bowl scrapings as my next starter. Sometimes its brown, white or rye. I'm not fussy!