Beer Forum

I made a sourdough starter yesterday, and I thought I should seek advice from others have tried this. Its been just 24 hours and there is little to no activity (no air bubbles forming, and it hasn't risen at all). I figure I'd wait another day or two before feeding it for the first time. If anyone has any tips for starters/making the bread, I'm all ears.

Peace,

-CC

What were your ingredients for starting?

I also made a sourdough starter, but I put more of a beer spin on it. I took about 1.5 cups of 2 row barley and crushed it into a fine flour using a mortar and pestle. I added this to white flour, rye flour and water. This is what I left out at room temp to begin the starter. Two row brewers malt is covered in the micro-organisms that give sourdough that tangy flavor. So, this helps to make a better starter, IMHO.

I also got a terra cotta flower pot from Home Depot for baking the bread. I heated the pot upside down in the oven on my pizza stone. When it was time to bake the bread, I lifted up the pot, put the bread on the stone, and put the pot over the bread. This perfectly creates that thick crunchy crust that you can only get from professional baker's ovens.

Good luck.

First, let me say that I know I should measure ingredients by weight. That said, I didn't. I measured out 4 tbl rye flour and an equal amount of water.

Edit: That should read 4 oz (not tbl) of whole grain rye flour and 4 oz of warm water.

blankaBrew wrote: Two row brewers malt is covered in the micro-organisms that give sourdough that tangy flavor.

That sounds like a great idea bro. I have been feeding and using a rather simple starter (white flour, water, honey) for some time now and it's definetely missing something. The lacto on malted barely might fill tha void. If you and CC posted your recipe and prodceedure, I for one would appreciate it.

I also started my first... starter for sourdough after listening to the BBR podcast. Initially, I ground up some flaked rye, flaked oat, and C20 in my coffee grinder. I didn't bother measuring stuff out for the starter, just basically eyed things 50/50 (flour/water). As mentioned in the show, it should have the consistency of pancake batter.

You may not see much activity during the first round, especially if your only using flour and not adding any additional sugars. It's a lot more work for the bugs in there to convert the flour starch. After a couple of feedings though, the bugs will become more acclimated and you should see activity in 12-24 hrs.

Making the starter is the easy part. I've yet to make a truly good loaf of sourdough bread. Attempt # four coming up this weekend.

When I got home yesterday, it had doubled, so I guess all is well. (I'm going to try to post a pic:)




I used 4 oz rye flour and 4 oz water.

blankaBrew - I'm still getting a feel for the loaf sizes. What size pot do you use?

I started one weeks ago....after a week in a half i forgot about it and a black mold took over. I dumped it all because i don't want that shit in my beer, then cleaned the fuck out of my kitchen. maybe this spring/summer i'll re-try it so that i can use the back porch. I was growing it in the kitchen, which is were i brew...so no more of that.