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Is it normal for a two week old starter to smell like nail polish remover Starter Help
Started from just flour and water 15 days ago. It rises and falls predictably now, roughly doubling in six hours on a 1:1:1 feed at room temperature, but the smell has gone from pleasant and yoghurty around day eight to sharp and solventy, like acetone. There is no coloured mould, no pink or orange, just the smell and sometimes a thin layer of grey liquid on top if I leave it a day. Have I killed it or is this a phase?
@costbasis_carl · 5mo ago · 3 replies
It is hungry, not dead. That acetone smell and the grey liquid, which is just alcohol and water, both mean the culture has eaten everything available and moved on to producing byproducts you do not want. Feed it more often or at a bigger ratio: go from 1:1:1 once a day to 1:5:5 once or twice a day, and the smell will move back toward yoghurt and green apple within three or four feeds. Doubling in six hours at two weeks is a genuinely good starter, you are just underfeeding it.
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@tiny_launch_tess · 5mo ago
Three days at 1:5:5 twice a day and it smells like yoghurt again. I had assumed a bigger feed would dilute it into weakness.
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@quietpackets · 5mo ago
Common assumption and it is backwards. More flour means more food, means a healthier population and a stronger rise, means you can use less of it in dough.
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