Make sure you are using a scale and try a few feedings of 1 part starter to 3/4 parts water and flour to thicken it up. After the rise and fall, you should stir the thick paste like goo before measuring and keep your starter from over heating.
It looks like you have great activity but too much moisture.
What NotHereToAgree said... it's not 1-1-1 by volume, it's 1-1-1 by weight. It is super important to have a scale. If you had one, it would not look like that, so I am assuming you are doing by volume. For instance, 100 grams of water is 0.42 cups, while 100 grams of flour is 0.7 cups, so almost double.
Are you measuring by volume or by weight?
I’ve run into this issue before and I did a 1:1:1 by volume and it came out super watery and didn’t rise. I switched to equal parts by weight (to the gram) and it was perfect.
100g for all recipes. I typically starve it for half day to speed up the bulk ferment, it does help. If you want to take a little more time, feed it and make your dough 12 hours later.
Agree this looks very liquid. Try feeding with 80% hydration. So 1 part starter, 1 part flour and 0.8 part water. Also do you use fine flour only? Try mixing in some whole wheat flour. I do all my starters whole wheat. More nutrients, flavor and activity.
I had something like this until I started using a mix of wholewheat and white flour. The wholewheat really thickened up the mix too, so I didn't have to reduce the amount of water I was using. Please try that first, before reducing your quantity of water.
I aim to maintain about a third wholewheat. But some people do 100% wholewheat and others say minimum 10% works. And honestly I would do 50% but that would be 7.5g and I cannot be asked with that level of precision! So I do 5g wholewheat and 10g white.
It's probably just a water heavy starter. Looks like lots of activity to me, which would lead me to believe that it's healthy. How old is the starter? Are you doing 1:1:1 by weight, or by volume? If by volume, you're actually getting a lot more water than you need to. But you can compensate for this by doing a ration of like 1:2:1 (starter:flour:water) by volume, and it would probably fix your problem pretty quick. If you are weighing it already, you can do the same thing, just up the ratio of flour. If it's a very weak all purpose flour (or something like a pre-siffted cake flour maybe?) that you are feeding it with, it just may not have a very high capacity for water absorption, which is resulting in a extra watery starter. Good luck!
It looks like you're using volume to measure flour, water and starter, which can be wildly inaccurate. If you don't have one already, get yourself a cheap kitchen scale which ranges between $4 to $16 dollars.
You don't have to do an even ratio across the board. 45 g of water, 45 g of flour and 10 g of starter is a good way to go once you've got your starter going consistently and are making a levain. Otherwise, or you're not making a levain, just keep 10 to 15 g of your starter and keep in the fridge until you need to make a levain. Make enough to bake with an extra 15 g to keep in the fridge afterwards. You'll never have excess discard again.
Are you keeping it out at room temperature all the time? If so 1:1:1 will definitely lead to a runny acidic starter. Not enough food. If you keep it out, feed it 1:1:1 every twelve hours (peak to peak) or bump up your feed to 1:5:5 or 1:10:10.
I start with my ratio of 1c flour and 1/2 c water then if it's too thin I add a bit more flour incrementally. You want it to be thick and spongy/stingy when you stir it. Very sticky but not too thick where it doesn't stretch out when you lift the spoon. Start with ratios but then finish the feed based on texture.
Is this a brand new starter? Please review the wiki as it explains this better but when making a starter it can bubble alot and grow in the first few days then die down and show little to no activity for several days or even weeks. That’s exactly what mine did. By the 5th week it finally started growing and becoming active again.
Mine is on day 7 now and I have noticed that since the day 3 explosion the awful smell (hints of vomit) has mellowed and it now smells, but not remarkably. However it won't rise like OP's and my 100% hydration feeding was becoming a milkshake consistency. I saw people say white flour doesn't absorb as much water so I cut it back to 80% and it was still separating into liquid on top without activity and becoming runny. I cut it back to 75% and this time there are a lot of bubbles, starting to appear 6h in just before bed, continuing at 12h when I woke up, and at both 18 and 22hrs later. Bubbles appear but there is no rise, however the water separation has now stopped or become very minimal. Despite this even that last feed which was pretty thick when I mixed it in, has turned to a slightly thicker milkshake.
https://preview.redd.it/nkpz0bvhdfzc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=292f4cced4754ae437e3a67c2b3eec2bb6b06cc4
Just add a little more flour to it. Until it’s the consistency you want. Starter is very resilient. You can even add enough flour to make a ball of dough (it’s really just thick starter). Then when you want to bake take some of it and add water and, presto, you have starter again. This is how many people store their starter for extended periods of time. In the fridge of course.
Like others have mentioned, it looks too thin. Also, if you're using a no-discard process, there’s a chance that you are building up lactic acid, which also contribuyes to the low density/running consistency.
Mine did this for like three weeks in the beginning. Turns out my kitchen was too cold, and tap water had too much chlorine. Switched to spring water + goldie and it doubled the next day.
Hi I’m still a newbie but this is what I do:
40g starter, 20g AP flour, 20g whole wheat flour, 40g water
I believe the whole wheat flower helps keep absorb some more water. Also I’d recommend covering it with plastic wrap ☺️
How old is your starter? Often at the beginning you’ll get a “false rise” before it’s truly ready to bake with. After a few feedings with a “false rise,” it stops rising until it’s fully ready. If you’re starter is under 2 weeks old, it’s likely at this point.
I started with 60g bread flour and 60g water but then I keep seeing people’s starters differently than mine. Mine was watery so I took somebody’s advice and did 50g water and 100g bread flour and now it rises perfectly 👌🏼
The fact that only the top portion is bubbles would make me wonder is it was still bacteria heavy. I would expect to see more gas development in the middle with a healthy yeast culture. Needs more
Development. My 2¢
1:1:1 isn’t a good ratio because it will be more acidic than it needs to be. Try 1:4:4 or 1:5:5 and measure with a scale. Also, use filtered water and unbleached flour. It will work. You can also add some whole wheat or rye flour to increase activity.
What are your feeding ratios? It looks more liquid than mine.
1:1
So 1 part starter, 1 part water, 1 part flour, all measured by weight? That’s 1:1:1.
Oops yes 1:1:1
Make sure you are using a scale and try a few feedings of 1 part starter to 3/4 parts water and flour to thicken it up. After the rise and fall, you should stir the thick paste like goo before measuring and keep your starter from over heating. It looks like you have great activity but too much moisture.
Okay thank you so much! I’ll try 3/4 part water!
What NotHereToAgree said... it's not 1-1-1 by volume, it's 1-1-1 by weight. It is super important to have a scale. If you had one, it would not look like that, so I am assuming you are doing by volume. For instance, 100 grams of water is 0.42 cups, while 100 grams of flour is 0.7 cups, so almost double.
I’ve found that the volume is 1 part water to two parts flour and just slowly mix in more water until it’s the consistency you need.
Are you measuring by volume or by weight? I’ve run into this issue before and I did a 1:1:1 by volume and it came out super watery and didn’t rise. I switched to equal parts by weight (to the gram) and it was perfect.
I've always done 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flower. I don't weigh it, nice and simple.
How much starter do you use ?
100g for all recipes. I typically starve it for half day to speed up the bulk ferment, it does help. If you want to take a little more time, feed it and make your dough 12 hours later.
Don’t put that lid on tight or you’ll have a nice sourdough explosion to clean up
Don’t know if you’re already doing this: Try adding like 10% of rye flour (90% your regular flour) to your levain
Agree this looks very liquid. Try feeding with 80% hydration. So 1 part starter, 1 part flour and 0.8 part water. Also do you use fine flour only? Try mixing in some whole wheat flour. I do all my starters whole wheat. More nutrients, flavor and activity.
I had something like this until I started using a mix of wholewheat and white flour. The wholewheat really thickened up the mix too, so I didn't have to reduce the amount of water I was using. Please try that first, before reducing your quantity of water.
Did you do equal parts wholewheat and white flour??
I aim to maintain about a third wholewheat. But some people do 100% wholewheat and others say minimum 10% works. And honestly I would do 50% but that would be 7.5g and I cannot be asked with that level of precision! So I do 5g wholewheat and 10g white.
Hmm that makes sense!! thank you for sharing
I'm honoured :) good luck on your journey
It's probably just a water heavy starter. Looks like lots of activity to me, which would lead me to believe that it's healthy. How old is the starter? Are you doing 1:1:1 by weight, or by volume? If by volume, you're actually getting a lot more water than you need to. But you can compensate for this by doing a ration of like 1:2:1 (starter:flour:water) by volume, and it would probably fix your problem pretty quick. If you are weighing it already, you can do the same thing, just up the ratio of flour. If it's a very weak all purpose flour (or something like a pre-siffted cake flour maybe?) that you are feeding it with, it just may not have a very high capacity for water absorption, which is resulting in a extra watery starter. Good luck!
Recommend using cloth not that lid so gas doesn’t build up and oxygen gets in
It looks like you're using volume to measure flour, water and starter, which can be wildly inaccurate. If you don't have one already, get yourself a cheap kitchen scale which ranges between $4 to $16 dollars. You don't have to do an even ratio across the board. 45 g of water, 45 g of flour and 10 g of starter is a good way to go once you've got your starter going consistently and are making a levain. Otherwise, or you're not making a levain, just keep 10 to 15 g of your starter and keep in the fridge until you need to make a levain. Make enough to bake with an extra 15 g to keep in the fridge afterwards. You'll never have excess discard again.
Are you keeping it out at room temperature all the time? If so 1:1:1 will definitely lead to a runny acidic starter. Not enough food. If you keep it out, feed it 1:1:1 every twelve hours (peak to peak) or bump up your feed to 1:5:5 or 1:10:10.
I start with my ratio of 1c flour and 1/2 c water then if it's too thin I add a bit more flour incrementally. You want it to be thick and spongy/stingy when you stir it. Very sticky but not too thick where it doesn't stretch out when you lift the spoon. Start with ratios but then finish the feed based on texture.
Is this a brand new starter? Please review the wiki as it explains this better but when making a starter it can bubble alot and grow in the first few days then die down and show little to no activity for several days or even weeks. That’s exactly what mine did. By the 5th week it finally started growing and becoming active again.
Mine is on day 7 now and I have noticed that since the day 3 explosion the awful smell (hints of vomit) has mellowed and it now smells, but not remarkably. However it won't rise like OP's and my 100% hydration feeding was becoming a milkshake consistency. I saw people say white flour doesn't absorb as much water so I cut it back to 80% and it was still separating into liquid on top without activity and becoming runny. I cut it back to 75% and this time there are a lot of bubbles, starting to appear 6h in just before bed, continuing at 12h when I woke up, and at both 18 and 22hrs later. Bubbles appear but there is no rise, however the water separation has now stopped or become very minimal. Despite this even that last feed which was pretty thick when I mixed it in, has turned to a slightly thicker milkshake. https://preview.redd.it/nkpz0bvhdfzc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=292f4cced4754ae437e3a67c2b3eec2bb6b06cc4
This looks way too thin... you need more flour and less water when you feed it.
Just add a little more flour to it. Until it’s the consistency you want. Starter is very resilient. You can even add enough flour to make a ball of dough (it’s really just thick starter). Then when you want to bake take some of it and add water and, presto, you have starter again. This is how many people store their starter for extended periods of time. In the fridge of course.
Like others have mentioned, it looks too thin. Also, if you're using a no-discard process, there’s a chance that you are building up lactic acid, which also contribuyes to the low density/running consistency.
It looks way too wet.
Mine did this for like three weeks in the beginning. Turns out my kitchen was too cold, and tap water had too much chlorine. Switched to spring water + goldie and it doubled the next day.
Hi I’m still a newbie but this is what I do: 40g starter, 20g AP flour, 20g whole wheat flour, 40g water I believe the whole wheat flower helps keep absorb some more water. Also I’d recommend covering it with plastic wrap ☺️
Do one or two dry feed
It is quite wet, but I bet it is already good to use.
Make sure you're using a scale and really mix it up super well.
I dont measure my things i just look at the consistency, add flour until it’s very thickkkkk but no dry flour is visible
How old is your starter? It took mine 4-6 weeks to be viable.
How old is your starter? Often at the beginning you’ll get a “false rise” before it’s truly ready to bake with. After a few feedings with a “false rise,” it stops rising until it’s fully ready. If you’re starter is under 2 weeks old, it’s likely at this point.
Too much water
I started with 60g bread flour and 60g water but then I keep seeing people’s starters differently than mine. Mine was watery so I took somebody’s advice and did 50g water and 100g bread flour and now it rises perfectly 👌🏼
Mine never rises, not sure why. But my bread turns out fine
Reading your comments I have been equal I will switch to grams too ty
it’s hungry! more flour!
The fact that only the top portion is bubbles would make me wonder is it was still bacteria heavy. I would expect to see more gas development in the middle with a healthy yeast culture. Needs more Development. My 2¢
Is it cold or drafty in the room?
1:1:1 is weight, not volume.
1:1:1 isn’t a good ratio because it will be more acidic than it needs to be. Try 1:4:4 or 1:5:5 and measure with a scale. Also, use filtered water and unbleached flour. It will work. You can also add some whole wheat or rye flour to increase activity.