Growing My Levain - Part Two: the Growth of the Levain

I have actually grown the levain for some time and it is now quite stable.
There are few ways to feed the levain and the books differ on this.
 Decided to document the journey here.  I used Ken Forkish's way of feeding the yeast, except I only feed 100g water and 125g flour each time cos I find it a great way and I feed on a 12 hour cycle because it is quite warm in Singapore. ( I perpetually get  30 degrees Celsius) in my kitchen and it is humid.  At night, it may drop to 27degrees Celsius but that is on a exceptional cold day.

Starting the levain and Growing the Sourdough Initially

Initial Feed  (1st Feed)

100 g yeast water
100 g bread flour
25 g wholemeal flour
1 glass container mine (1.9 L, believe me you will need the extra space)

Weigh the container and write down its mass in permanent marker on the glass.  It helps for subsequent  feedings.  My weighing machine sleeps quite quickly and I have short term memory, so the tare function doesn't help much.  I also put a calculator so I just keep adding and the numbers on the calculator reminds me of the mass I have to add the stuff to.

Pour in yeast water, add in bread flour and wholemeal flour.  Stir with a knife to combine.  I do get a think paste like texture after the flours are mixed in.

Leave it for 12 hours at room temperature.  You should see the levain doubling.  It did for mine.  Took a whiff after the 12 h...the acetone smell comes back again.  The mixture is now more liquid.

2nd Feed

100 g yeast water
100 g bread flour
25 g wholemeal flour

Discard all but 100 g of the initial starter from previous feeding.
Add in the yeast water and stir well, scraping the sides of the container so that the mixture is incorporated into the liquid.  I did stir quite vigourously to incorporate air.
Stir in the flours and scrap down and even out the surface of the paste and then rest at room temperature for 12 hours.

3rd and subsequent feeds

100 g water  (I used Evian as my starter was still growing)
100 g bread flour
25 g wholemeal flour

Discard all but 100 g of the initial starter from previous feeding.
Add in the water and stir well, scraping the sides of the container so that the mixture is incorporated into the liquid.  I did stir quite vigourously to incorporate air.
Stir in the flours and scrap down and even out the surface of the paste and then rest at room temperature till mixture doubles.

By the 3rd day mine started to double in about 2 hours.  After it doubles, I put it in the fridge.

Before the next feeding by an hour, I take it up to warm in up.
 The  growth of the levain was not so predictable the first few days, but for mine, by the 5th day it was very vigorous.  It would often double in 2 hours or less.

Once the growth is stable, you can start baking with it.

I could baked my first bread using Carol Hu's recipe eagerly after 5 days.  Baking is usually 2-4 hours after the feed.


Sorry, I didn't take any pictures this time because I was worried it failed again.  Haha...but it didn't.  Ok, I will document its growth in another post.  Told my hubby, he has a new baby....he says he would eat his own baby....my kids joked that they have a new sibling just that they can't decide if it is a he or she.

Growing Levain - Part 1 Growing the Yeast Water

I have been playing around with sourdough lately this school holiday.  I have been wanting to make sourdough bread for some time but I thought that it was something that could only be done in places where it was cooler e.g. America. But when I saw my friend posting her starter on Facebook, I decided to give it a try.

Decided to do an internet search on natural yeast and went to the National library to borrow books on natural yeast bread. I found out that this kind of bread making is not only prevalent in Europe but also in Japan and Taiwan (in this case, in recent years) and is very much gaining popularity around the world again due to its health benefits, in particular, the lactic acid in the sourdough and bulk fermentation process breaks the phytic acid in the grains and wheat and allows the nutrients from the these grains to be better absorbed by the body.

After doing all my readings and watching the videos, I decided to take a plunge do the sourdough levain in two stages:

Stage 1 :  Grow my Yeast Water

Stage 2 :  Grow the Starter

Stage 1 Growing Yeast Water

It seemed all so easy from the readings.  

(1) Need some fruits with yeast

(2) Water and sugar (optional)

(3) Sterilized clean bottle.

However, I did fail twice before I could get my yeast water to produce the starter.  Read my 2 failed attempts below and finally my final success.

Attempt #1  (Failed attempt)

My first failed attempt at raisin yeast water.

1st Day : Added fruits to water and sterilized clean bottles.

I first tried with organic raisins (without oil!  I did read the label) and organic apples.  But only with filtered tap water (using a Brita filter).  

3rd Day :

There were some bubbles on the third day for my apple yeast water but none for my raisin.  Don't know why because many books said that it was easier to get yeast water (and the bubbles) from raisin.  Went to check my raisin package again - yes, it does says organic and there is no line, no passage of any oil anywhere on the package.

I decided to transfer some apple yeast water on my raisin. 

 4th Day:

Finally saw some bubbles in the raisin yeast water!  Was it because of the apple yeast water or raisin yeast water?  Not sure.  This is bad, I am a physicist ..... changing two variables at one time (time and adding of water from apple) does not allow me to find out which is the cause of the bubbles.....too impatient.  Hm....but I did start to see some white bits floating on the apple and raisin.

5th Day:

Saw more bubbles....in both bottles, very, very happy!  Decided to take some out to make the starter.

Did a starter for both raisin water and apple water.  50g starter water, 50 g flour, 1/2 tsp of sugar to get it going. It did double after 12 hours.  

6th Day:

I fed it some more now 100 g flour and 100 g water.  It continued to double after 12 hours.  I didn't understand why I must discard, seeing that there my bottle was not filled I decided that I shall not discard.

7th Day:

I thought the starter was stable, some books and website did say you can make a starter dough immediately after having the bubbles.  So I did and tried to bake with it.  Made the dough in the morning.  However, even after 6 hours of wait, the dough did not rise at all.  Was so disappointed.  Threw away both the starter water for both the raisin and apple, the (what I thought was) levain and dough of the bread.  Ending my journey for my first experience of yeast water making.

Attempt #2 (Failed attempt - or an attempt which could have succeeded but I would never have known)

My second attempt at yeast water with apple.

I was convinced that I couldn't fail, if others have done it before I should be able to do it.  I went back to the books and searched the internet, reading article after article.

"Maybe it was the water?"  Many people find success with mineral bottled water.  Maybe our water is too chlorinated.

To spur me on, Tze Wei decided to get me a bottle of Evian water.

This time I decided to change the water to Evian water and decided to have sufficient fruit to ensure there is sufficient sugar to feed the yeast.

So the second attempt goes like this:

300 g cut apples
200 g Evian Water
1 tbsp of organic sugar.

Day 2 -3 :   I got bubbles from day 2-3 and it did look promising.

Day 4:  The water still smells good and bubbles are still there.

Day 5 :  HORRORS!  The bubbles disappeared!  No more?!!! Why??? Why??? The water got cloudy.....no signs of life :<  By evening I still saw no bubbles :<  upset, upset.  Am I wasting my money and time?  Urgghhhh maybe I should give up.  Threw away this bottle of yeast water.

Alas, the end of experiment 2.


Attempt #3 (Final Success- or an attempt which could have succeeded but I would never have known)

I didn't quite dare to try after my first 2 failed attempts.  Was angry and frustrated because it is not very cheap and easy to get organic fruits in Singapore and the stuff don't come cheap.  I was actually wondering if it was all worth the effort then.

Again, my sweet, sweet husband nudged me on again.

"There is still the Evian water left?  Don't waste it.  Don't you always encourage your students not to give up and keep trying.  At least do one more experiment and use up the water."

He even drove me down to the nearest Finest NTUC to hunt for organic grapes.  His theory- maybe the apples were irradiated before imported in, let's look for fruits with obvious yeast on the skin.

So we went down to the supermarket and lo and behold, there were organic grapes (we don't always have them).  Choose a small box with the most cloudy skinned grapes and went back to start my 3rd experiment.

1st Day :

200 g organic grapes  (halved)
300 g water (Evian)
1 tsp of organic sugar
1 sterilised glass jar.

This time I used a double folded cheese cloth to cover my bottle, and just lightly twist in the cap. Read somewhere that the yeast needs to breathe!  So I should not have been sealing up my bottles cos I would have deprived all my yeast of the oxygen if there were any.  Instead of giving it a swirl, I was advised to keep give it a vigorous shake, which I did.

2nd - 4th Day:  Small bubbles emerged on the 3rd day, just as before but I didn't dare to get my hopes up too hig.

5th Day:   By the 5th day however, the bubbles disappeared again.  I was disappointed, but decided to just keep feeding.  Didn't quite like the smell, the apple yeast water was definitely better smelling.  The only difference was I decided to not throw this time.  Some books say keep for 7 days and I decided to do so.   Gave it a shake in the morning and another time at night.

6th Day:   No bubbles still.  But did not want to give up and persevere I shall.  Isn't this what I always tell my kids and students to do? Anyway no harm and no mould is growing, so why don't I just continue.

7th Day:  Finally!  I wokeup this morning and there were big bubbles, really big ones, and I could see effervescent, like soda pop.  The earlier acetone smell was gone and it was definitely like alcohol sweetness.  Putting my ears at the opening of the bottle I could definitely hear the bubbles popping.  Fizz Fizz....SUCCESS Finally.

Next Page will be growing the Levain for use!

Top View of the Bubbly  Grape Yeast Water

Side view of the Bubble Grape Yeast Water