starter odor changed

Thanks to all of you who
responded to my post. I feel
like I poisoned a friend and
want to help my poor sourdough
starter to get well again.

Will, no change in the wheat
berries, although my 50lb bag
is getting at the bottom and I
just reordered more.One puzzle
for me is that when I feed my
starter, what I keep goes
right back into the
refrigerator, so fermenting at
the 90º temp is only what I
use for making pancakes. I did
use more flour with the
feeding, thinking it would
have more to "eat" in case I
didn't get back to it for 10
days or so.

I will ferment at a lower
temp, bubbles and action seems
good. I"d say that it might be
characterized as smelling
cheezy...whew, real sour
cheezy. What's this a sign of?

I will wash it and see what
happens before I make a new
starter. I'll report back the
results.

more thanks...Nicki

On 19 Mar, 14:39, Nicki Sinclair <nicsb...@sbcglobal . net > wrote:
..
> I will ferment at a lower
> temp, bubbles and action seems
> good. I"d say that it might be
> characterized as smelling
> cheezy...whew, real sour
> cheezy. What's this a sign of?
...

Hi Nicki,

it sounds to me like you do have the thing I was talking about
earlier. Trust me me though it could get worse before it gets better.
I find with a starter that has been fermented too much the smell can
get like a restaurant bin just before it comes around. It's a bit of a
mixed blessing.

I know some just carry on regardless and things all come together in
the end but it will be ready quicker giving it a 'wash'. If you still
get the liquid underneath after twelve hours and it still smells
cheesy repeat the wash. If it smells cleaner to wine you can get away
with feeding more normally. Im my experience 1 part starter to about 4
parts flour is enough of a dilution at this point but it does depend
on how bad your starter is. I find that it gets back to health quicker
if you can make sure the temp is around 25C / 77F.

Jim

Niki,

Are you keeping your starter in the fridge most of the time? If you are, you
may be inhibiting the yeasts and encouraging the lactobacilli.

You might try throwing almost all of the cheesy starter out and refreshing
it with flour and water, increasing it by about 4 times, fermenting it in a
temperature around 60-70F.

After 3 or 4 repeats you should have achieved a better balance between
yeasts, lactobacilli and acetobacilli .

Good luck!

baker@bread . com wrote:
> Niki,
>
> Are you keeping your starter in the fridge most of the time? If you are, you
> may be inhibiting the yeasts and encouraging the lactobacilli.
>
> You might try throwing almost all of the cheesy starter out and refreshing
> it with flour and water, increasing it by about 4 times, fermenting it in a
> temperature around 60-70F.
>
> After 3 or 4 repeats you should have achieved a better balance between
> yeasts, lactobacilli and acetobacilli .
>
> Good luck!

Thanks, I heed your advice...Nicki

Nicki Sinclair wrote:
>
> Thanks, I heed your advice...Nicki

So 8 days later, what have you done and what happened when you did it?

B/