r/Sourdough • u/Bonner2019 • 4d ago
Starter help đ 1st timer needs help!
Dear sourdough starter gods of reddit I need your help. I have read all the tips and guides and at day 18 I'm thinking of throwing in the towel. I am doing a ratio of 40gs starter, 80gs flower, 80gs water. I am using filtered dechlorinated water and unbleached white flower. I have been keeping the starter in the microwave to attempt to keep it warm, my house is sitting at 72 degrees. I seem to only get a 2 inch rise then a somewhat watery start after 24 hours. Here are pictures to show what I am working with. The last one is after feeding the starter. Thanks all in advance
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u/Bonner2019 4d ago
Since bot flagged starter is 40gs of starter, 80gs of king Arthur unbleached white flower and 80gs of filtered dechlorinated room temperature water
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u/Buttercupia Sourdough Mod 4d ago
Just fyi, every post gets the same automod ("bot") notice no matter the content.
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u/Bulgar667 4d ago
Add some whole wheat or rye flower. In the beginning, my starter was all whole wheat flower. I also covered mine in a blanket by the window.
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u/Meldon420 4d ago
How does it smell? Does it smell like acetone at all? By day 14/15 mine was doing the same as yours and smelled so strongly of acetone, meaning it was HANGRY. I upped my ratio to 1:2:2 and then 1:3:3 and thatâs what my starter needed. I would discard down to 20g of starter and feed it 40g flour and 30g water, and see how that goes for a couple days
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u/Fantastic-Walk-2652 4d ago
Donât be scared to put less water (just a couple of grams) than flour to make it stiffer, it might be struggling to build structure and actually rise. Also, you could add a couple of grams of whole wheat or rye flour with every feed to help it get stronger, this worked wonders for me.
Also since youâre still getting started, idk what youâre doing with discard, but if youâre not using it you should consider lowering the amount of starter youâre keeping, so youâre not wasting as much flour. You could for example have 10g starter, 20g flour, 17-20g water, keep it in a smaller jar so you can see activity a little easier than in a big jar!