Last week was way too hot to even think about turning on the oven so I didn’t make any bread.
I mentioned in my last post that my starter had gotten very weak and I think there are multiple factors contributing but mostly I believe it was my fault.
I was simply throwing out too much starter when I refreshed the starter each day. Part of that was intentional, I was try to maintain low acidity in the starter. The unintentional part was that over time, dried starter built up in the container above the level of the starter. I had been several months since I cleaned the container so there was a lot of build up. When I refresh my starter I discard starter until the weight of the container plus starter falls into my target range of 170 to 180 grams. The empty clean container weighs 139 grams so I should be keeping 41 to 51 grams of starter each refresh. However this time I had a buildup of 20 to 25 grams so in effect I had reduced the starter saved by 50%.
With the container now cleaned and a target weight of 180 to 190 grams after discard my starter is back to doubling in volume in 5 hours.
The starter is still more liquid when I refresh’s it than it was in the winter. I think that is due to the higher kitchen temperature resulting in faster fermentation. I should probably be refreshing the starter twice each day. Since I only bake one or two loaves of bread a week that seems somewhat wasteful. So I will keep going the way I am as long as it works.