Sourdough Starter from Ale Barm

Well today I finally got to the point that I could bake a couple of loaves of bread to test out the starter I made with ale barm, so I can report back on this project. I already wrote about using the ale barm in place of yeast, but as much as Morcant would enjoy making a new batch of ale every day, we don't always have fresh ale barm. So I  decided to make my sourdough starter using just ale barm and flour. To begin I put half a cup of ale barm into the jar I use for starters.

It was foamier when I added it. It settles.

I added 1/2 cup rye flour and because I wanted to work with the ale beasties and not wild beasties, I used an airlock.  I usually do this in my house because we have so many things brewing and culturing. This fermented for a week in the same room as 2-gallons of cranberry wine, five gallons of rye ale and 2-gallons of cranberry mead.

It never did foam much.  I just kept adding 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water every day for a week. It was interesting.  The watery substance that formed on top was brown and not gray like it is when I do bread yeast starters.  And it is a lot thinner.  Honestly it looks a lot like ale,  I am trying to figure that out.

After 24 hours it still it was only a little bubbly. 

On Sunday. I had about four cups of kind of soupy starter and so I took 3 out to start the first rise of my bread.  My recipe needed some tweaking for this starter.  I had to add some flour to get to the consistency I am used to with the other recipe.

 I did omit the salt because the period recipe I was working with last week didn't call for it, but I am not interested in doing that again unless I am in a competition.  I am going to believe that adding salt was so ubiquitous that the recipes tended to leave it out.  As you can see below, it worked out just fine.  This is about triple the volume it started out with when I put it into my makeshift riser.

Just to be clear, I have making bread  since I was six years old. So that's 41 years now.  This particular baking process is one I have been using for probably five years now to make peasant loaves and other artisan breads. I started using the roaster as a riser when we stopped using our woodstove.

I could use this bread right away and that would be more period.  But this crock goes into the fridge for 24-48 hours before I use it so that the gluten and other anti-nutrient factors breakdown making the bread more nutritious for the family. I learned that from a baker friend in Minnesota who studied at Ballymaloe in Ireland.   We eat a lot of fresh bread, so that's important to me. It takes 40 minutes to rise and bake a loaf of bread using this recipe and this recipe will make about five-six medium size loaves.

This might make it until tomorrow.  

I guess my conclusion about using the ale barm is that it works just fine, but just don't expect it to the yeast to foam  the way your bread yeast does. The rise time seems to be dependent on the type of flour you use, just like bread yeast.   I don't think there is a noticeable difference in taste except for that whole leaving out the salt bit.  Did I mention I am not going to do that again?