My Mind Patch: 💤Growing Natural Yeast using Unbleached Bread Flour

Phew 😅 My natural yeast, cultivated directly from unbleached bread flour and water, was finally able to double in volume within 3 hours. Viola, after at least 8 failed attempts. That little container of natural yeast babies were able to raise and smell like normal yeast 😄

Cultivating natural yeast from bread flour and water was not an easy task, though the ingredients deem simple. Mainly due to our hot weather. Yeasts strive better in room temperature ranging between 25 to 27 degree Celsius. However, it is normal for our room temperature to hit above 30 degree Celsius.

Sharing with you the journal of my natural yeast cultivation process. To be frank, I would not recommend this cultivation method in view of our "hostile" weather 😁 I was luckily that there were a few days of lower room temperature which allowed the yeast to grow 😁

Day 1 (15.08.2016)

Time: 6:00 pm

Room temperature: 31.2 degree Celsius

Smell: good

Addition: 30g bread flour + 60g water

1. Rinse the mason jar with hot water.

Turn on the oven toaster at 95 degree Celsius for 5 minutes. After the power has cut off, put the mason jar in it.

Sterile the bottle by keeping it in the preheated oven toaster for 10 minutes.

2. After the container has cool to room temperature, pour in 60g of cool boiled water and 30g of unbleached bread flour.

Stir to mix well.

3. Loosely tighten the the lid, so air pressure would not build up inside the jar.

4. Place it in a cool corner and wait ...

I place it at my open kitchen shelf so I can watch it :) Just in case I might forget about it, hehe

Day 2 (16.12.2016)

Time: 3:10 pm

Room temperature: 30.8 degree Celsius

Observation: sparse bubbles were seen on the surface of the liquid indicating some yeasts are active. A little acidic odour can be detected. Proceed to feeding.

Feeding: 30g bread flour + 30g water

Some bubbles are observed on the surface of the liquid.

Proceed to feeding the yeasts.

Stir to mix well.

Cover but not tightly, and let the mixture stands till the next day ☘

Day 3 (17.08.2016)

Time: 11:00 pm

Room temperature : 30.2 degree Celsius

Smell: not very strong

Addition: 60g bread flour + 30g water

Tie a rubber band to mark the starting height of the yeast mixture

There was only a little bubbles seen on the surface of the liquid. I was afraid that there wasn't any yeast activity in the jar. I gave the mixture a few rounds of swirl, and added a few grains of raw sugar. To my delight, more bubbles were seen. The yeasts were secretly working in the flour layer under the calm liquid.

I proceeded to feed the natural yeast with 60g of unbleached bread flour and 30g of water 😎

Feeding: 60g bread flour + 30g water

Mark the level of the mixture with a rubble band to track the growth height of the yeast

Since I was going to leave it overnight, I place a shallow plate below to catch the overflown natural yeast if it grows out of the jar 😁

Day 4 (18.08.2016)

Temperature: 30.2 degree Celsius

Time: 11:00pm (24 hours after last feeding)

Feeding: none

Observation: Some bubbles, covering less than 10% of the flour-water mixture surface, can be observed. No visible bubble could be seen from the side of the jar. There was odour, but not pungent.

These are signs that some yeasts maybe working but slowly.

It's late 🌃 See you tomorrow 😴💤

Day 5 (19.8.2016)

Time: 9:35 am

Room temperature: 29.2 degree C

Smell: yes but not pungent

Observation: More fine bubbles, which took up almost the entire surface of the flour-water mixture, can be seen 😁 The side view of the flour-water mixture also appeared to be slightly "porous" compare to yesterday's porcelain smooth. But the natural yeast didn't raise much ☹️

So, I decided to transfer 40g of the flour-water mixture and discard the rest ✌🏼️

Good sign that the yeasts were doing well ☘

Time: 11:00pm

Temperature: 29.2 degree Celsius

Transfer: Keep 40g of the natural yeast, and discard the rest

Addition: 20g flour + 20g water

Transferred 40g of the flour-water mixture to new sterilized container, and discard the rest.

Added 20g each of unbleached bread flour and cool boiled water to the mixture. Stir well.

Mark the new initial height of the mixture with a rubber band. If the height doubles the next day, then I proceed to the next step.

Day 6 (20.08.2016)

Time: 9:05 am

Temperature: 30.2 degree Celsius

Odour: no bad smell

Feeding: Added 10g each of unbleached bread flour and cool boiled water.

Observation: no visible activity can be seen.

Feed the flour-water mixture with bread flour and water.

Loosely seal with a cling wrap, and mark the new height with a rubber band.

Time: 4:35pm

Temperature: 30.9 degree Celsius

Feeding: 10g flour + 10g water

Observation: very little bubbles, almost invisible to naked eyes 😁 No bad smell.

The flour-water mixture before feeding.

Feeding with 10g of bread flour + 10g of water.

The flour-water mixture after feeding. Waiting patiently to see some bubbles to appear 😁

Day 7 (21.08.2016)

Time: 8:30 am

Temperatures: 30.2 degree Celsius

Odour: no strong odour

Observation: some very fine bubbles seemed to be under the surface. Very low activity.

Feeding: 10g bread flour + 10g water

Before feeding,

Feeding 10g each of flour and water

After feeding, cover and wait 😪

Day 8 (22 August 2016)

Time: 8:45 am

Room temperature: 29.9 degree Ce

Transferred: 30g

Feeding: 30g bread flour + 30g water

24 hours after last feeding, the volume seemed increase a little but not significant.

Only a few bubbles can be seen. Time to transfer the flour-water mixture and do new feeding 😁

Transferred 30g of flour-water mixture to a new sterilized container.

Fed with 30g each of water and bread flour.

Covered and observed.

Day 9 (23.08.2016)

Time: 7:40 am

Room temperature: 30.7 degree Celsius

Feeding: 15g flour + 15g water

24 hours after last feeding, only a few tiny bubbles could be seen at the surface.

Continue the day feeding with 15g each of flour and water.

Day 10

Date: 24 Aug 2016

Time: 12:15 pm

Transfer: 20g flour-water mixture

Feeding: 20g water + 20g bread flour

The yeast activity was low, not much bubbles seen. So, I did another round of transfer.

I transferred 20g of flour-water mixture to a clean container, and feed with 5g each of bread flour and water.

Day 11

Date: 25 Aug 2016

Time: 12:15 pm

Room tenperr

Feeding: 5g water + 5g bread flour

11 hours later

The entire surface was covered with fine air bubbles.

The side view also showed presence of air bubbles throughout the mixture. A good sign that the yeasts are beginning to become active 😄🎉

Just after feeding

1 hour later, the flour-water mixture has risen by about 1/3 of the mixture height.

Day 13

Date: 27 Aug 2016

Time: 08:00 am

Feeding: 10g water + 10g bread flour

After feeding with 10g each of the bread flour and water.

13 hours later, yeast didn't rise much. So I think it's time to do a transfer again.

Day 14

Date: 27 Aug 2016

Time: 9:05 pm

Transferred: 30g

Feeding: 15g water + 15g bread flour

Combined the transferred flour-water mixture with 15g each of bread flour and water.

Covered and place in an aircon room,

Time: 11:35 pm (2h 30m after feeding)

The flour-water mixture increased its height almost double, indicating the yeasts are active 🎉

Day 15

Date: 28 Aug 2016

Time: 11:15 am

Room temperature: 30.3 degree Celsius

Feeding: 5g water + 5g bread flour

Before feeding, 14 hours after last feeding, the entire flour-water mixture was covered with air bubbles.

After feeding with 5g each of flour and water

2 hours after feeding, the natural yeast has doubled in volume.

I use my mature natural yeast (the bottle with green rubber band) as my yardstick to measure the fermentation rate of my new natural yeast. Both seem to be growig on par with each other in terms of fermentation rate 💕😄💕