My starter refreshment and storage has developed through the years and I believed I might doc it right here, simply in case it’s of curiosity to others.

• I run a low discard system, with 16g of flour used for every refresh.
   
• The flour combine is 95% unfortified bread flour + 5% T997 gentle rye for some further vitamins. I take advantage of unfortified bread flour (though it’s exhausting to seek out within the UK) as a result of the calcium carbonate in fortified flour will increase the starter pH by about 0.2 models.
   
• For water I take advantage of grocery store model bottled spring water
   
• Tools-wise, I’ve 100ml and 25ml polypropylene repurposed sauce pots – dishwasher secure and reused many instances. Temperatures are maintained in a really small proofer I made (the Nano-Proofer). Flour and water is weighed on a 0.1 or 0.01g scale (a 1g scale is not correct sufficient, since it may be +/- 1g)
   
• For fairly some time I’ve maintained a stiff, 50% hydration starter as I consider it’s extra tolerant of fridge storage and likewise much less crucial of levain construct timings. Lately I’ve elevated the hydration barely – to 55% as I feel this encourages yeast development.
   
• The refresh is 8g starter/16g flour/9g water for five hours at 28C in a 100ml sauce pot
   
• One other latest, however extra radical change is to storage temperature; I beforehand saved the starter within the fridge door, possible temperature about 6C, and refreshed each 7 days. Now I’m storing in a separate fridge at 10C and refreshing each 5 days. This is similar fridge I take advantage of for in a single day ultimate proof retards at 4C. Since I solely want it for this goal in the future every week, I can alter the temperature set level to 10C and use it for starter storage the remainder of the time.
   
• When working with small quantities of starter, it’s simple to show it to extreme quantities of air, which I feel could also be detrimental, so I now retailer in a “pseudo-anaerobic” system – it is really quite simple; I simply switch the starter after refreshment to a tiny 25ml sauce pot with no lid and wrap in a few turns of cling movie (stretch wrap). This enables for growth in storage and likewise if I take out some starter to make a levain I can press the cling movie down into the empty area.
   
• And lastly, I’ve made a mini spy jar that may match inside my nano proofer when refreshing my starter. I sometimes fill it with 15g of additional dough and monitor rise in the course of the refresh (5 hours at 28c). Final time I obtained a 120% rise in 5hrs.

The nano-proofer:

Wheat starter and rye starter refreshes plus simply sufficient room for a mini spy jar:

Starter after refreshing:

Refreshed starter transferred to 25ml pot:

Now wrapped in cling movie prepared for storage:

Lance