no wild yeasties?

[big brown horse]

Question for any successful wild fermentation sour dough makers. My mix of flour and water was started on 01-12. There is nothing going on. It doesn't smell bad. I know mt house is a little cool. Any ideas about helping this along without jacking the heat up or running a space heater in one room. Alo should the starter take off how do you get it warm enough to rise. Have made many loaves of so so bread, but always had a snug and warm place to make it. My current house is all brick and stays cold until June. Any help or do I have to wait?

A friend and I started our sourdough simply by adding 1 cup warm water to 1 cup of flour. We started this summer when it was warm. I carelessly killed mine after I made a few nice loaves of bread and she gave me some of her starter. I make sourdough every week now.

Anyhoo, this is how we got our starters, well, started:

From Sourdough Baking by S. John Ross

1. Blend a cup of warm water and a cup of flour and pour it into your container.

2. Every 24 hours feed the starter. You should keep it in a warm place, 70-80 degrees Farenheit is perfect. Temps over 100 or so will kill it. The way you feed the starter is to a. throw away 1/2 of it and then b. add a h alf cup of flour and a half cup of warm water. Do this every 24 hours. Within three or tour days (it can take longer, a week or more, and it can also happen more quiecky) you should start getting lots of bubbles throughout, and a pleasant sour or beery smell. The starter may start to puff up, too. This is good. When your starter develops a bubbly froth, it is done.

3. Refrigerate the starter. Keep the starter in your fridge, with a lid on it. Allow a little breathing space in your lid.

Once the starter is chilled, it needs to be fed only once a week.

Hope this helps.

I am even making nice loaves in my cool house. It just takes longer that is all.

 

[GardenWeasel]

Thanks for all the replies. Said starter turned into a gummy chicken pancake( I will not waste whole wheat flour). I was afraid it would glue their little beaks together but they went and had drinks after.I will try again when it is warmer. No warm spots in the house, outside heat pump, water heater in the carport. If there was one I would be sitting there. Really want some home made bread.

 

[big brown horse]

Thanks for all the replies. Said starter turned into a gummy chicken pancake( I will not waste whole wheat flour). I was afraid it would glue their little beaks together but they went and had drinks after.I will try again when it is warmer. No warm spots in the house, outside heat pump, water heater in the carport. If there was one I would be sitting there. Really want some home made bread.

I'll be happy to send you some starter. BTW, you can practice with white flour too...eventually you can sorta transition it into wheat if it begins to work.

I started with rye and wheat mixed as a starter, then turned it into a white flour starter and made some fantastic white bread. (My 13 year old daughter (she eats like a Russian Wolf) loves white bread.) Now it is just a whole wheat starter. It is very versatile. And now that it is about 5-6 months old it is nice and sour.

I forgot to mention that you can use a little commercial yeast to a starter to "boost" it.

 

[GardenWeasel]

Thanks BBH, I will take you up on that but I scared myself with my failure and usually take a while to get over it. I'll just ferment some more saurkraut cause I am good at that and make some regular old bread. I can rise that in the bathroom with a space heater on real low. It is much faster. But keep it going for me, I get wild hairs alot.

 

[xpc]

Some things I have seen or used in the past on a liquid ferment but could be used for bread too.

I have only made beers and such, usually in 5 gallon buckets and ran into it being too cold also. Two things that worked for me was to wrap a heat tape around the bucket, I don't think you can buy it from a bigbox store anymore but years ago they sold heat wire by the length and was equal to 8 watts per foot, a 3' piece (24w) was enough to keep it at 70F+, I also used a heat lamp reflector with a smaller bulb shining on it 24/7, both worked well for my application.

I have read but never tried was to use a heating pad under a pot of water then placing your bowl of starter on top like a double boiler. I don't know how low a temperature a heating pad will consistently stay at and have heard that the newer ones will auto shut-off after an hour or so. Also rather than a heating pad some people have used an aquarium heater in the water bath and reported good results.

If you try any of these it would be best to test it first to see if you can keep the temperature between 70-95F, as BBH quoted anything over 100F will not only stress the yeast but also kill them. In brew making stressed yeast or ruptured ones from high osmotic pressure will impart a bad flavor. I don't know how many wild yeasts are running a muck during the winter as I always pitched my own. Tenting the starter with a towel or cheesecloth would help keep the heat in while letting the co2 out. Now not only do I want to make some fresh bread but a bit of apple jack too.

Edit - Side note:
Another thing that can be detrimental to the new found yeast especially if there are only a few trying to get started is the water quality that you make the dough from, I know its not much but is always safe to use distilled or boiled aerated water. This will not only kill any competing bacteria it will also drive off any chlorine that is in it, I have found my water to be good but a bit much in chlorine and will usually just let a few gallon stand over night to gas out.

 

[big brown horse]

Good point xpc (LOVE YOUR NEW AVATAR ) I forget that I live on a well...no chlorine.

BTW, homemade beer???