Spent 45 minutes fighting a poolish that wouldn't bubble before I realized my water was too cold

Had to heat it up to 78f exactly and threw the bowl in my oven with the light on, now it's doubling in like 4 hours, anyone else's kitchen just naturally too cold for fermentation?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_max18d ago

haha yeah that exact thing happened to my buddy Dan. He kept trying to make sourdough last winter and couldn't figure out why nothing was rising, turns out his kitchen sits at like 63 degrees and the starter was basically in hibernation. He ended up buying one of those cheap seed starting mats online and just puts his bowl on that now, says it works way better than the oven trick cause the air stays dry. Still can't believe he went three weeks thinking he was just bad at baking when really his house was the problem.

logan20518d agoTop Commenter

Tbh I read somewhere that yeast activity basically stops below 70 degrees, which explains why so many people struggle with bread in winter. It's wild how much your environment matters, I never thought about something as simple as a seed mat being the fix. Glad your buddy figured it out though, three weeks of failed sourdough sounds rough.

terrybennett15d ago

Brought back memories of my buddy trying to ferment hot sauce on a heating pad and it got way too warm.