Just some food for thought. I ran an experiment comparing the pH of
two samples of the same starter refreshed with different flours. Both
samples consisted of 10g of starter + 50g water + 50g flour. Both ran
at the same temperature (75=B0F to 78=B0F). One was made with fresh
ground whole wheat flour, the other was made with enriched, bleached
high gluten white flour. I think this demonstrates the phenomena of
whole grain flour buffering the starter and allowing the ac***ulation
of more total acid before the LAB growth shuts down at a pH below 4.0.
The most interesting result is the increase in pH during the first
hour. Anybody care to speculate on why this happens?
Look here for data:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DocDough/StarterPH/photo?authkey=3DW5xf8wUEzog#=
5217143234399849442"><imgsrc=3D"http://lh5.ggpht.com/DocDough/SGcEIUy8S-I/A=
AAAAAAABEI/OoT2ArgoJQs/s144/Starter%20pH.jpg
Doc
