Wild yeast sourdough starter

I was out doing yard work at another property a couple of weeks ago and along the back fence is a neglected concord grape vine. It had it's usual small clumps of purple grapes. I picked a few bunches and put them in my jacket pocket and kept working.

When I got in the truck to go home I remembered the grapes and ate a few. Well, really sucked the sip of sweet juice out and spit the rest out the window.

When I got home I wondered what I might do with the rest, and seeing the white powdery dust like matter on the skins of the grapes I thought sourdough starter.

I didn't do any research and just faked it and here's how it went.

I took the 20 or so unwashed grapes off one small bunch and put them in a 2 quart stainless steel bowl that has a snap on plastic lid. I used a pestle and smashed the grapes coarsely. I added 1/2 cup AP flour and enough well water right from the tap to make a pancake batter consistency. Mixing it very well to incorporate as much air as I could. Snapped the lid on and left it alone till the next day.

I peeked inside and looked and smelled. I saw a somewhat separated situation with liquid on top and some pools of bubbles and the distinct smell of yeast along with the smell of grapes. Encouraged, I stirred it up to incorporate more air and snapped the lid back on and waited one more day.

This day it smelled of cheese. Like Limburger or something. Very cheesy. No more yeast smell and not so much liquid separation, but still bubbles. A little disconcerted but to persevere, I strained the grape matter out of the rest and put it back in the bowl with another 1/2 cup flour and a little water. Now it was thicker than pancake batter and very sticky and cheesy smelling. On goes the lid and wait another day, maybe 2.

This time there is some indication of bacteria growing on the surface of the batter/dough. There are definitely bubbles in there, but to my mind not enough. The cheesy smell is now tempered slightly by a vinegary smell. I scoop off the surface cultures and in goes another 1/2 cup of flour and and some more water to make a thin, sticky dough. Cover and wait.

This is where I looked this stuff up on the internet and found I should be feeding it every 12 hours and I should be aiming for something that will double in size in 12 hours. So in the mornings I dump in 1/2 cup flour and some water and remove and discard some of the starter so there's no chance of overflow, and the same routine in the evenings.

This discard a little, feed a little wait a little routine goes on for a week hoping to get to something that doubles in 12 hours, but it doesn't happen.

A little more research shows that local yeasts are of varying qualities. Some are very robust and will double a dough in a few hours and other, weaker varieties, apparently like what lives around here, aren't as capable.

A day ago, I took the entire starter mass and added flour to make a bread dough consistency and kneaded it for 10 minutes. I shaped it into a smooth ball and back in the bowl and just waited to see how long it took to double. It took 24 hours.

I pulled the ball of dough apart where I found that it had a very even distribution of small bubbles. It had a pleasantly sour smell. I'm more than a little disappointed in the vigor of this local yeast but I'm confident it could be used to make at least a dense loaf or maybe something lighter with much time and hoop jumping.

So, I place an amount of it in 2 quart jars and add water and mix to get the pancake batter consistency again and lid the jars loosely and this is where it's at right now.

I have this wild yeast sourdough starter of unknown hydration that I really don't know how to use properly. As I've put this much effort into it I want to use it at least once. I don't often bake bread, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis... wait. I mean I use a modified no knead bread recipe. If I left that recipe in here, does anyone feel confident they could rewrite it into something that would use this starter I've created? 

The no-knead recipe I use:

3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup water

20 hours before

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and mix till it just comes together. Cover and allow to rise for 18 hours.

Punch down and flatten dough on a floured surface. fold the edges to the center and flip it over and form into a boule. heavily flour a towel laid on the counter and place the boule on it seam side down. Heavily flour the top of the boule and fold the towel over loosely.

Set a timer for 1 hour, after which time place a cast iron dutch oven and it's lid on the center rack of the oven and set it to 450F. Set the timer again for 1/2 hour. After which time open the oven, pull out the rack and liberally sprinkle corn meal in the bottom of the dutch oven. Fetch the boule in the palm of one hand seam side up. Flop it into the dutch oven seam side down, slash the loaf if you choose, put the lid on and bake for 15 minutes.

After which time set heat to 480F, open the oven and remove the dutch oven lid. Insert a digital thermometer probe and close the oven and bake till an internal temp of 203F. The loaf should just fall out of the dutch oven and onto a rack to cool.

So, the original rise is 18 hours. I'm sure that could be extended. The second rise is only 1 1/2 hours. I'm not sure that's going to cut it.

The other thing is the dough its self. It's a wet dough at 74% hydration. This is to provide that steamy environment in the dutch oven during the first part of the bake. How the heck do I get the numbers right when I have this starter that is part liquid, part flour with an unknown ratio?

   Interesting developments here Rod...I'll be awaiting the next post 

You just described my last attempt at wild sourdough starter. I didn't think to add yeast (store bought). I tossed it all. I'll have to try again. But I don't think I ever got the starter to "double".

Rod, do you think it would have worked with less water? I'd try it again if I thought I knew what the problem was. In my case I did not, it just failed miserably.