Hooch - I am a little unsure.

Morn
Hi people,

I am day 4 in my old school flour and water starter. I have read about hooch in starters and have the understanding that the early appearance of hooch signifies a week starter.

Every day I find a good 2 cm of hooch in my jar and it varies between transparent to brown in colour. In the morning I stir this back into the mixture and in the evening I spoon most out before feeding just under half of the original mixture with some fresh flour/water.

There is definately activity in my starter as I have noticed areas of the mixture clotting and generally there are always bubbles.

So the question is should I be worrying about this hooch and should I stir this back into the mixture in the morning?

I guess the amount produced will potentially decrease as the yeast colonies become stronger, but as the mixture is still moist without this extra liquid I am not sure if mixing it back in will be of benefit.

Any advice welcome.
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ben hyde 2009 June 25
Morn,You don't need to pour it off - as far as I know, Janet.But I think when you are starting a starter it is best to make it gradually firmer (a bit more flour proportionally).
I am a baker in France - I only work with sough dough - no bakers yeast in the bakery as it can kill with sough dough (or turn it into bakers yeast anyway). You can see some stuff about my bakery 'trois petits pains' on my rather infrequently updated blog:troispetitspains.blogspot.com
Just found this forum and looking forward to future discussions.
hello all
ben
Morn 2009 June 25
Well I have thickened the starter up by adding more flour to the mix last night.

There is a lot less hoochie water on top now so I think that the hydration played a big part in the formation.

Any further comments welcome though.

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