[Sca-cooks] Fermentation Sponge Question

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sun Apr 1 19:23:00 PDT 2007


Aldyth asked:
<<<< Does anyone have experience in whether starting the sponge with  
certain
kinds of flour determine what kind of sponge it will ultimately  
become?   For
example using a lower gluten flour versus a higher gluten flour.>>>

The biggest determinante is not what the sponge is made of, but what  
yeasts are present in the environment in which you are creating the  
sponge. Are you just putting the sponge in the open and letting  
whatever is floating around the room invade the sponge? Or are you  
inoculating it with a particular yeast?  The latter is what you are  
doing when you add ale barm or some yeast from a previous batch of  
bread to your sponge.

Some yeasts are likely to do better in some sponges than in other  
sponges, however since most will probably work in any sponge, the  
biggest factor is going to be the one that gets the best head start.  
The micro-environment around the sponge will affect the winner to  
some degree. This is why San Francisco was known for its sour-dough  
bread. And why a friend in my barony, who is an avid brewer, could  
not leave orange juice uncovered in his kitchen for any length of  
time, or it would start fermenting. His kitchen had a lot of yeasts  
he had used in brewing floating throughout his kitchen. I believe  
folks have also mentioned intentionally not brewing vinegars and  
beverages in the same area.

I believe this is talked about in the yeasts-msg file in the  
Florilegium, which I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





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