I'm a micro-starter keeper, too. Thanks for this post. When I studied baking in Germany last month, the instructors at the school showed us how they kept a low-hydration rye starter in the refrigerator for several months. They took off bits of it and used them to feed the sponge when they needed to bake the next day. When the old starter gets low, they make a new one and keep it in the fridge again for months. I may take up this habit.
this makes sense, though after months of room-temperature feedings and a very happy starter, I am extremely skittish about reverting to fridge storage!
I feel really dumb but... how do you go from a 100%/2:2:1 starter to a micro starter and back again? I'm sorry if I forgot if you posted about this already.
Not a dumb question, but a common one! When going from a large to a micro starter, just pretend the starter is a micro/low-hydration one when you use it as a seed. the extra water will come out in the wash eventually. If you want to go the other way, just make an intermediate-scale one and pretend it is at 100% hydration, like 40:40:20 or so, then use that one to seed a larger one.
But the point of a micro starter is to not need to go back and forth; you can maintain it always as a micro-starter and use it to build a levain (or an intermediate starter) at another hydration for baking.
But where I feel dumb and/or where I feel like maybe you've written about this before... how do I do the actual math to change the hydration? Is there an online calculator?
Do you mean how do you do it *precisely,* even though you don't need to, or is what I am saying unclear?
Here's why I think it's unnecessary: If you add a small amount of seed to a large amount of flour and water, the hydration of the seed doesn't really factor into the final hydration.
For example:
100g flour
100g water
20g 100% starter
110g flour, 110g water = 100% hydration
100g flour
100g water
20g 75% hydration starter (11.4g flour and 8.6g water)
111.4g flour, 108.6g water = 97.5% hydration
If you REALLY want to be precise, it's simple enough:
First, divide the weight of starter by (1+ the hydration), which tells you how much flour is in it.
eg. 20g 75% hydration starter:
20 ÷ 1.75 = 11.4g flour
Then subtract that from the total weight of seed to get the water amount (20 - 11.4 = 8.6g).
Finally, subtract that number from the flour weight, to get the difference (11.4 - 8.6 = 2.8g). Add that amount of water to the new starter, and it will be 100% hydration.
Does that make sense? Or are you asking something else?
Andrew, sorry for a belated post on this subject. I did try out your “spa” starter treatment a few weeks ago. I had been using 10% rye, 90% bread flour and gradually weaned my starter off the bread flour with daily feedings and no refrigeration, so it reached 100% rye. I didn’t see much rise with each feeding when using such a small quantity of starter, but when I made your hi hydration artisan bread, the levain was delightfully active and the resulting bread was delicious (this recipe has be one my go to bread). I’ve been away for a couple of weeks and need to refresh my starter. Am I correct that I can just stick with the 100% rye flour starter for all my sourdough bread baking? Thanks.
Yep! Although I will say that I had two starters for awhile, one WW and one rye, and now I am just keeping a mashup of the two: 10g WW flour, 10g WR flour, 15g water, and 3-5g starter. It's probably unnecessary to use both, but it definitely works for both rye- and wheat-based levains, and it is as happy as ever.
Hi Andrew, I am also the kind that feel guilt in putting starter in the fridge, my starter is quite young and I do think it needs time to make it stronger in room temperature. I started off with a 100% starter and have just changed my starter to a 75% hydration (a few days ago) in an attempt to slow down things so I can build levain overnight. I do have a question after reading your post, the reason to maintain the white starter at 60% hydration, is it because white starter rise and fall faster comparing to the other ones, which you maintained at higher hydration?
I'm a micro-starter keeper, too. Thanks for this post. When I studied baking in Germany last month, the instructors at the school showed us how they kept a low-hydration rye starter in the refrigerator for several months. They took off bits of it and used them to feed the sponge when they needed to bake the next day. When the old starter gets low, they make a new one and keep it in the fridge again for months. I may take up this habit.
I'll look through my notes from class and get back to you!
this makes sense, though after months of room-temperature feedings and a very happy starter, I am extremely skittish about reverting to fridge storage!
I feel really dumb but... how do you go from a 100%/2:2:1 starter to a micro starter and back again? I'm sorry if I forgot if you posted about this already.
Not a dumb question, but a common one! When going from a large to a micro starter, just pretend the starter is a micro/low-hydration one when you use it as a seed. the extra water will come out in the wash eventually. If you want to go the other way, just make an intermediate-scale one and pretend it is at 100% hydration, like 40:40:20 or so, then use that one to seed a larger one.
But the point of a micro starter is to not need to go back and forth; you can maintain it always as a micro-starter and use it to build a levain (or an intermediate starter) at another hydration for baking.
But where I feel dumb and/or where I feel like maybe you've written about this before... how do I do the actual math to change the hydration? Is there an online calculator?
Thanks! I appreciate it.
Do you mean how do you do it *precisely,* even though you don't need to, or is what I am saying unclear?
Here's why I think it's unnecessary: If you add a small amount of seed to a large amount of flour and water, the hydration of the seed doesn't really factor into the final hydration.
For example:
100g flour
100g water
20g 100% starter
110g flour, 110g water = 100% hydration
100g flour
100g water
20g 75% hydration starter (11.4g flour and 8.6g water)
111.4g flour, 108.6g water = 97.5% hydration
If you REALLY want to be precise, it's simple enough:
First, divide the weight of starter by (1+ the hydration), which tells you how much flour is in it.
eg. 20g 75% hydration starter:
20 ÷ 1.75 = 11.4g flour
Then subtract that from the total weight of seed to get the water amount (20 - 11.4 = 8.6g).
Finally, subtract that number from the flour weight, to get the difference (11.4 - 8.6 = 2.8g). Add that amount of water to the new starter, and it will be 100% hydration.
Does that make sense? Or are you asking something else?
Andrew, sorry for a belated post on this subject. I did try out your “spa” starter treatment a few weeks ago. I had been using 10% rye, 90% bread flour and gradually weaned my starter off the bread flour with daily feedings and no refrigeration, so it reached 100% rye. I didn’t see much rise with each feeding when using such a small quantity of starter, but when I made your hi hydration artisan bread, the levain was delightfully active and the resulting bread was delicious (this recipe has be one my go to bread). I’ve been away for a couple of weeks and need to refresh my starter. Am I correct that I can just stick with the 100% rye flour starter for all my sourdough bread baking? Thanks.
Yep! Although I will say that I had two starters for awhile, one WW and one rye, and now I am just keeping a mashup of the two: 10g WW flour, 10g WR flour, 15g water, and 3-5g starter. It's probably unnecessary to use both, but it definitely works for both rye- and wheat-based levains, and it is as happy as ever.
Thanks for putting my mind to rest (and for the quick reply; how do you do that)!
I’ll probably experiment with the 50/50 starter.
Thanks for putting my mind to rest (and for such a quick reply . . . How do you do that?) I will probably try out the 50/50 starter.
Hi Andrew, I am also the kind that feel guilt in putting starter in the fridge, my starter is quite young and I do think it needs time to make it stronger in room temperature. I started off with a 100% starter and have just changed my starter to a 75% hydration (a few days ago) in an attempt to slow down things so I can build levain overnight. I do have a question after reading your post, the reason to maintain the white starter at 60% hydration, is it because white starter rise and fall faster comparing to the other ones, which you maintained at higher hydration?
yes. It's because white flour is less absorbent than whole-grain, so it takes less water to get a starter of a similar consistency.
Just wondering... at 60% hydration, is it still mixable with a spatula? or it will need kneading to fully hydrate the flours?
probably *just* mixable with a spatula or starter whisk, yeah
Great i will give it a go, thanks!