Vinegar innoculated starter

This is a continuation of: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sourdough/comments/1vmyjnw/sourdough_starter_lab_colony_seems_to_have_died/

TLDR: I put white vinegar(heinz) into my starter to try and revive the LAB (Lactic Acid Bacteria) population, but instead somehow brought up the AAB (Acetic Acid Bacteria) count way higher than it usually is.

As a result the bread tastes like a long fermented loaf even though the time taken is about the same as a normal loaf.

Recipe: ~73% hydration

500g flour

365g water

40g starter

12.5g salt

3 sets of stretch and folds

4hr bulk ferment

~12hr cold ferment

Bake at 225 degrees Celsius

25 min with steam

20 min without

Points for discussion:

It seems like as a result of the increased AAB, the time taken for gluten breakdown takes longer (even though acetic acid is a stronger acid). This being the case, is it possible that it reduces bioavailability of whatever is in bread?

What is a possible way to measure the gluten breakdown to confirm the above hypothesis. Additionally what is a good way to confirm that AAB concentration is now higher?

Updates for this experiment: (I will probably only do these if enough people are interested)

– whether LAB and AAB ratio will revert back to normal given time on a regular feeding schedule

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY THIS FOR YOURSELF:

I'm not sure if you have to kill off the current LAB colony to reinnoculate the starter, so there are 2 methods I think may work. No.2 is probably the more surefire way, but It takes some time (~1 week)

Method 1:

Add some vinegar into the water when you feed your starter.

I used 1:9 vinegar:water. I'm not sure if a higher concentration is better or worse, but if the concentration is too low, it might not be enough to bump the AAB colony

Method 2: (how it happened in the first place)

1. Take unfed starter and close it in an airtight container

2. Wait a week

3. When you open the starter after the 1 week, it should smell kind of like bacterial fight club happening/not like a healthy starter

4. Feed 1:1:1 starter:flour:water where the water is 10% vinegar

5. Feed the starter as usual once it behaves like a normal starter again (doubles within 4hrs after Feed and DOES NOT SMELL FUNKY)

The idea behind Method 2 is that you kill off the current LAB and AAB colonies(they NEED oxygen) and reinnoculate with vinegar.

To confirm if its inoculated, I think you should just taste the starter; It will be Sour, ridiculously so, so just taste a tiny bit 🙂

Please do share your experiences if you try this out!

Happy baking!