Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter in HOT Country

Toast
unbleachedpotato on 8 Apr 2020 at 08:48

Hi All,

I have been reading around this forum, and others as well, about how to start a wild yeast sourdough starter in a HOT country, and found none to be helpful. 

Room temperature: 91.4 F (33 Celsius). the coldest room temperature we have is 84.2 F (29 Celsius)

I followed the instructions here: http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/233/wild-yeast-sourdough-starter%3C/a%3E. I used water only, instead of pineapple juice. 

I am currently in Day 2 of instructions, this is what happened:

Day 1: Starter overflowed after 18 hours

Day 2: After 3 hours of feeding my starter, it already overflowed. i haven't fed it again.

Day 3: the starter had a bad smell, like over ripe bananas gone bad. Not sure if it's still alive, so I fed it 6 hours ahead of schedule. Some bubbles started showing up after 3 hours. I read that this is a good sign. The smell is still there, after 11 hours from feeding, but not as strong anymore.

The container I used can fill up 500mL of liquid, definitely more than enough space (especially for day 2). the lid is loosely placed as well

The water temperature was 87.8F (31 Celsius), this is tap water temperature here. 

Questions:

(1) should i be worried about the quality of the starter? or just proceed per as instructions

(2) I read that i can refrigerate, but this is mostly for those people who already have a working starter. I have not read anything about refrigerating on the first 7 days. any advice on refrigeration at this stage?

(3) should i just feed it more often? if yes, what are the measurements for this?

(4) should i use cooler water? if yes, what temperature is ideal?

Hope to be able to get some advice!

Thank you!

I live in Darwin Australia.  Ambient temps 33C.  I too are experiencing similar issues to you.  I attempted making a starter last year.  I didn't feel it was viable.  I attempted x2 bakes at different dates.  Both produced a very flat / poor crumb / quite dense / and quite an acetic acid flavour - it was edible but I certainly don't want to replicate these efforts.

re water - it is important if you are using tap water to boil and cool it to remove any chlorine present as otherwise, it will kill off your yeast etc.  

Im contemplating the following - opting for a less hydrated formula - I think favours yeast over LAB/  considering placing the starter in the fridge during the day / on day two of starter development adding a very small pinch of salt to retard the fermentation process.  

I did use Pineapple juice on one starter I attempted to make - I found it very beneficial Vs a starter without same.  ( see Debra Winks articles in the forum.  It provided very sound rationale for using Pineapple Juice re pH modification of starter.

Would be very interested in reading any feedback you receive from your post.  If you see my recent post you will see some feedback from MiniOven and a quite detailed recipe she has suggested I try.