sourdough with roeselare blend?

has anyone tried this or anything similar? i just made a sourdough starter by rinsing out my just-pitched smack pack of roeselare blend and using that as the water. i guess if these bugs don't particularly like bread flour then the lacto resident in my kitchen will sub in and i'll never know the difference.

I made sourdough using White Labs' Sour Mix, and was very happy with the results. Alas, I don't have that starter any more.

cool! i'll post results

now that that's solved, i'll take the opportunity to hijack with my own personal question, lol.

i bought a dry starter like 2 months ago and kept it in my fridge, sealed in the package. is it still good?

yep.
next?

(actually i have no idea, but why wouldn't it be)

Just racked my Flanders to secondary and from laziness left the primary to sit until tomorrow. Now I'll be setting aside some of that cake to use for bread. It'll have to sit in the fridge for a couple weeks due to a vacation, but looking forward to trying some bread from it. timely post.

Last winter I made several loaves of bread with brewery's yeast. Started with a hefe yeast, then added a Belgian, and cal ale as I finished various batches of beer. But never added or allowed any souring. Slow and a bit dense, but tasty.

my starter was foaming after a couple days, so i started to train it up; discard most and replenish with fresh flour mix every day for a week or so to get it really active and ready to ferment a loaf. as it was just getting going it had a pleasant almost flowery smell, but after the first day on new flour, the brett has announced its presence! it honks. it has very suddenly taken on all of the barnyardy whiffyness of a brett beer! i'll move it out of the kitchen and keep it going...

wow that thing was really stinky. but the recipe i have (from tartine bakery in SF) says once it's active to throw out 80% of your starter culture each day and feed it new flour, and that it will go from honking like old cheesy shoes to smelling fruity and sour, and that's exactly what happened. really smells like sourdough! i have no way of knowing if the lacto and friends from the roeselare blend are prominent or if someone else has taken over. a few more days and i'll turn it loose on the first loaf. pics will follow

Keep the updates coming. My yeast and bug cake is sitting neglected in my empty primary while I'm vacationing in Oz. But I'll attempt to resuscitate it in another week.

I'm interested to see how this turns out. I've been looking for a way to get more sour out of my sourdough.
Regards, GF.

check out Tartine Bread by chad robertson, he discusses what factors promote sourness by both the overall amount of acid produced, and the acetic / lactic ratio. cooler temps, longer fermentation of the starter, higher percentage of starter to fresh dough favor a more sour dough, according to the book

I've made sour dough with yeast cake from a berliner weisse. That cake had lacto bacteria and standard sacc yeast. I made a big sourdough starter that I fed for a week, then made a bunch of bread with it. Bread was good, but not great. I didn't get enough sour in it. Will try again.

dinnerstick said:

check out Tartine Bread by chad robertson, he discusses what factors promote sourness by both the overall amount of acid produced, and the acetic / lactic ratio. cooler temps, longer fermentation of the starter, higher percentage of starter to fresh dough favor a more sour dough, according to the book

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I'll definately check it out.
Regards, GF.

for all interested,,,, MAKE THIS BREAD!! it came out amazing. i have to say that following a recipe from a really good baker helped quite a bit. i tried to follow the recipe mentioned above to a tee. ballsed it up in a few places but more or less got there in the end. i had a problem transferring the risen dough to the pot so it didn't quite rise up to its full potential, but it's still soft and airy in the middle and not at all dense. the taste is fantastic, a bit of sour and funk but not at all overwhelming, hints of that gueuze-y weirdness but with the strong crunchy malliard crust the flavor balance is very nice. two major points, you need to train up the starter for a week or so, don't skip this step! second, for the crisp hard crust you need either a real bread oven or a thick dutch oven style pot like the le creuset one in the pictures. this makes a super humid microenvironment needed for crust development.
get your starter going with bottle dregs, smack pack leftovers, natural bugs, what have you. persevere through the stink for a few days. after a few days, once it is foamy and smelly, throw away 3/4 or it and replenish with a handful of 50/50 white/whole wheat flour and enough water to make a thick batter. do this every day for a week or so, then make a big starter to rise overnight. the dough is 450g white 50g whole wheat flour 350ml water. mix and let rest. add 10g salt 25ml water, mix well and knead until smooth. let it rise 4 hours at room temp, turning and gently kneading every now and then. fold into a round; the author has a method for building up tension using the natural elasticity of the dough by stretching and folding under. final rise 4 hours or 12+ hours in the fridge, upside down in a basket lined with a towel dusted with flour. the dough shouldn't stick to the towel but mine did and deflated a bit when i tried to peel it away. pre-heat the pot in 250C oven, flip the risen loaf into the pot and cover, reduce heat to 225C. after 20 minutes remove the lid, cook another 25-35 minutes until it's golden brown. boom. pics are: 1. the overnight starter (called a leaven)
2. the float test to see if it's airy enough 3. dough before kneading 4. final rise 5. in the pot, scored with a razor

6. about to go in the oven, you can see where it stuck to the towel and deformed
7. just out of oven
8. i think it's pretty obvious from here on
9. see 8

next one is going to be perfect now that i've got the hang of it

made one mistake in the above post: the final dough is 450g white 50g whole wheat 350ml water and 100g of the overnight starter/leaven. mix this quickly and let it rest 30 minutes. the author says do not skip this rest. then add the salt and the rest of the water.
keep the rest of the leaven to start the next loaf. for more acetic sourness use a higher ratio of the leaven and/or let it get funky for a few days rather than overnight.

That looks great!

Back from Oz and finally revisited this. Just started my starter with a cup each of white/wheat flour, about 2 cups of old leftover beer and yeast cake, plus some water to thin it up a bit. When ladling out of my fermenter, I tried to be sure to get some of the floating colonies of bugs on the surface.

I'm prepared for the funk. The family leaves me tomorrow for 3+ weeks stateside, so there will be no one around to complain or be disgusted by it. I hope to bake next weekend.

dinnerstick said:

wow that thing was really stinky.

Click to expand...

I just did my first dump and replenishment, and mine smells quite pleasant actually. Primarily it smells like a Belgian with noticeable alcohol. I guess I'll prepare for the funk to come on in days to come.

Impatience and laziness caused me to go for an overnight loaf in the bread maker. It only had the normal rise times, so is mildly sour. However it was worth it, since I used my usual dumping of the starter when feeding it and it took no effort. No perceptible funkiness in my starter; it's pleasantly tangy. I'll definitely try to keep it alive and do a proper loaf later.

It took nearly 2 weeks, but the bugs have come to the foreground. Yowsers, that's a biting sourness with funk in the scent. Maybe I'll turn it into a loaf this weekend.

i'm getting good at this. really recommend the tartine bread book i mentioned earlier. the method of building tension by precise folding it spot on, with great pics.