How to correct liquid sourdough strenght

Mature liquid sourdough

Hello folks ! Have been a while since I did not post here, but the book, the baking itself and sport duties don't conceed me a lot of spare time...
I had the idea to write this piece while I was looking some feeds on Instagram and I figure that some people (either pro and home bakers) had the same problem with liquid sourdough.
The main issue was a lack of activity (or strenght) and a strange smell/flavor that was not typically related to sourdough. Since the acidity was good, (let's say around 3,8 to 4,2 ph), as well as proofing times and temps, the problem was obviously generated from some bacterias contamination. It's not quite easy for sourdough to be contaminated, but in some cases, even if one works with the right hygiene protocol it happens. If the levain have been suffering some stress, in example very long fermentations with either low starter inoculation and/or low temperatures (like in winter), the natural barriers from external bacterias may not work. Infact just the use of an organic flour which brings some different bacterias strains than usual can give problems of this kind.
What to do if refreshing after refreshing the issue does not solve?
The most secure (and drasthic) option is to toss the sour and make a new one from zero....
Obviously no one want to loose their beloved levain :)
Here is a method to try (with success most of the times) to bring back in strenght our sourdough.
First, we need to refresh it one time with this formula: 1:4:2 (starter:strong flour:water), mix it until a developed dough is formed (dough temp 25c) and let ferment 8 hours at 26-28c covered.
With a knife, cut the peel off and take only the heart of our stiff starter. Cut the center in 1cm slices and put them into a solution of 28c water with 0,1% white sugar for 15 minutes. (Water should be 5 parts greater than sourdough weight and 0,1% white sugar calculated on water weight). Be careful to not dissolve the slices in the water by using a gentle touch. Repeat the process, (refreshment and bath), until you loose the off flavor and solve the issue.
After that, the stiff starter can be converted again in liquid sourdough by proceeding with a couple (or three) feedings in which you augment the water %.
NB. this process can be used also for too acidic sourdoughs but not for yeasty ones.
Hope this will serve and I wish you many great "Natural Leavenings"

Ps. I found a transaltor for the book so it will be released quite soon in English ! :D

About Bread Flavor

A "Bruschetta".
Even with complex preparations,
some notes of the bread's flavor will be present.

Hello everyone ! I hope everyone is having wonderful bakings :)

Finally, I found some time to write this post. The idea sneaked in my mind since last week but I couldn' t write it down, for a reason or another.
But hey, here we are!

Maybe the most important thing in bread baking, for most people; Flavor, or flavour, taste, is undoubtedly one of the main characteristic we all are conscious of.

To be more clear, think to a person who doesn' t have any bread knowledge.
He, or She, will not notice much of the appearence of the bread, or the differences in texture, but will for sure understand very well the taste. Maybe not all the slight variations or the aftertaste, but the main sensations of sweet, bitter, acidic, I am sure, will be felt.

So, which can be the main flavours in sourdough breads? Just the word sourdough itself can hit your imagination and start wetting your mouth because of the first part: Sour; That is acidity. Acidity force your mouth salivating. And salivating will help to eat that fantastic food we are loving!

Many are the possible levels of acidity in a levain bread. To me the optimal ph of the final product should not be less than 4.0. After that I feel the acidity starts cover other flavors. Of course this is only my humble opinion and there are very good bakers who like more acidic breads.
To be honest, the most important thing for me, is not quantity but the quality of acids in a bread. This is because they will give a very different imprint.

As everyone knows, the main acids produced in sourdough breads are of two kinds:
Lactic acids and Acetic acids. The names alone, tell you which flavor they will produce in breads.
Usually, when producing a certain bread, good bakers tend to choose if the flavor should be lactic or acetic. Therefore they choose or adapt methods that will give the wanted result.

To me one of the most interesting point is that you can have a mix of both, producing some of the most complex flavoured breads (without adding ingredients).
This is the case of some long, retarded maturations in which the two acids will be produced altoghether but in a different percentage.


Which are the other flavors that can charactherize a sourdough bead?
Sweetness and bitterness are always presents.

Much of those tastes balance depends on flour quality, and another part is directly connected with the fermentation method.

Red wheats, in example, have a reddish bran which will give, especially to whole meal flour or high extraction ones, a bitter taste.
Here in Italy we don't have this kind of wheat so it's really uncommon to have bitter flours.

Another consequence of bitterness is when during a fermentation, some byproducts (acids, esters) are produced. They then pass into the final products, and the taste will be affected.
Again, the cooking time/heat will affect the flavour of the bread; Overcooking always lead to a bitter aftertaste or taste depending on the level.

Sweetness, on the counterpart, can be produced by very sweet grains; Such as the grano duro Timillia, Khorasan, some hybrids and so on...
Also I noticed that if a very short fermentation method is used while making the bread, the sweetness will be more noticeable because of less sugars have been processed by microorganisms.

The last, but not less important taste, will be the flavor of the grain itself.
Even if refined flours will end up with little to no grain flavor, the less refined ones will bring the seed charachteristics to your mouth.

In conclusion; I can say being a chef for many years trained my taste sense quite a lot, therefore I always feel when a bread I bake lacks of some particular flavor or have another more persistence or again if an aftertaste is pleasant. The most important thing for me is to try achieve a right balance and complexity of flavor keeping in mind that no one of the main tastes (acetic sourness, sweetness, bitterness, lactic sourness, grain) must be too present or will overwhelm your senses and eclipse other flavours.