Spelt Sourdough Starter

[CliffRose]

Hi,
I', wondering if anyone has experience making a sourdough culture with spelt. I made one, but it seems way to liquid/thin. I fed equal amounts of flour and water. It smell fine though. I've seen videos about sourdough, and the starters seem thicker than mine.

[dogmom327]

Are you using equal amounts of flour and water using measuring cups or a scale? If it's measuring cups, try using either a scale to measure out equal amounts or go to one part sourdough starter, one part water and a little less than two parts flour when feeding the starter (ex. 1/2 cup sourdough stater, 1/2 cup water and a little less than a cup of flour). That should thicken it up.

[ltlmrs]

Yes, spelt will make a runnier starter. It's no big deal, the bread comes out the same if you increase the amount of flour in the final dough to adjust for the wetter consistency. However, if you want a thicker starter try using a 2:1 ratio of flour and water so, 1/2 cup start:1/2 cup flour:1/4 cup water. HTH!

[Taedareth]

I always have a hard time catching wild yeast for sourdough starters. So instead, I use equal parts kefir and freshly-ground spelt flour. It does make a liquidy starter but I just thought that was normal, lol. When I make bread, I just add however much flour is needed for a firm loaf.

Only issue I have with keeping a sourdough culture is that after a few days, any dried starter on the sides of the jar turns black and putrid. The liquid sourdough in the bottom of the jar is fresh and healthy. So to avoid this problem, I have to keep pouring the culture into a clean jar every couple of days. It's a pain. Anyone else have this problem?

Some bread recipes here http://www.breadtopia.com/2009/04/02...-bread-recipe/

[Koalamom]

Spelt works great for sourdough. I don't know what it is, but I have the easiest time catching wild yeasts. It took 3 days for a brown rice starter and 1.5 for a rye.

I too change jars when making a starter. It just keeps things fresher.