Ginny,
I am very familiar with Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough culture. Mine has been going strong for 3-4 years now.

Usually the starter is fed with equal measures of flour and filtered or bottled water.

If you continue to feed it every 12 hours, you will end up with way more starter than you need.

Following is from the information sheet that I provide when I share either of my starters:

The starter will need feeding about every couple of weeks; just add 1 cup warm water and 1 cup flour.

When you want to bake bread, take the starter out of the fridge and bring it up to room temperature (this will take 1-2 hours). Then, feed the starter with 1 cup flour and 1 cup warm water and let it sit in a warm place overnight to ferment. The next morning, remove the amount you need for baking. Pour the remaining starter into a clean jar and refrigerate. Wash the previous jar very well.

I have only fed my starter with water and flour, no milk, no potato flakes or potato water and only used sugar and the potato flakes at the very first to activate the dried starter. Beat some air into the starter with the spoon or fork as you feed it.

If you find yourself with only a small amount of starter left, you will need to build the starter  i.e. donÂt dump a whole cup of flour and water into 2 TB of starter!
To build your starter amount: add 1-2 TB of flour and water into a small amount of remaining starter, let sit to work; then add about 1/4cup flour and water, stir well, let sit to work; next feed, add another 1/4cup flour and water, stir well, let sit to work. Let the starter work for a minimum of 2 hours each time after you feed it. Now you have built up additional starter so you can feed with 1 cup each flour and water, let sit to work, use to make bread, or store in fridge.

Store the starter in glass or crockery. I mix the bread in my Kitchen Aid stainless mixer and let it rise in the stainless bowl or in a crockery bowl.

There is a lot of speculation about the sourness of bread. One idea is every once in awhile use dark rye flour to feed the starter or some in the bread dough. Another is to let it rise at a lower temperature (60?) so it rises longer and gives the bacteria a longer time to do their work. Some feel that making the starter more firm (adding more flour than water when feeding it) results in a more sour taste. DonÂt expect your starter to ever taste as sour as commercial sourdough bread  they add things to it to get that really sour taste.

The starter will develop "hooch"  a mixture of alcohol and water  while being stored in the refrigerator. If there is more than one-inch of hooch, I pour most of that off, let the starter come to room temp, feed it, let it expand 4 hours, then use it to make bread or put back in the refrigerator. Any sourdough recipe you may try assumes that the starter has been fed and left to rise, then you begin the recipe.

Hope this helps,
Teresa

Thanks for the information Teresa. If I'm understanding you correctly you are saying that if I leave it out on the counter for a week and feed it every day that I will have too much starter. I would have to dump half of it each time I understand.

I thought the idea of feeding it (nurturing it so to speak) out on the counter and frequently sounded good but if you think it won't make a difference I'll skip it and put this into the refrigerator for weekly feeding or so.

Ginny

Thanks for the information Teresa. If I'm understanding you correctly you are saying that if I leave it out on the counter for a week and feed it every day that I will have too much starter. I would have to dump half of it each time I understand.

I thought the idea of feeding it (nurturing it so to speak) out on the counter and frequently sounded good but if you think it won't make a difference I'll skip it and put this into the refrigerator for weekly feeding or so.

Ginny

Correct, Ginny. The only reason to leave starter out on the counter at room temp is if you make bread every single day or every other day. I usually make bread once a week whether it be a sourdough recipe or one made in the usual manner with commercial yeast. If it has been a few weeks since I made sourdough bread, I will take the starter out of the fridge, let it come up to room temp, feed it with small amounts of flour and water, let it expand at least 4 hours, then return the starter to the fridge to sit another couple of weeks.

I keep about 1 cup or a little more of starter in a pint glass canning jar. Currently I have two different starters stored in the fridge in this manner. Any starter benefits from frequent feeding and use to make bread.

Here is a link about making a starter culture which may be helpful.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Sourdough Starter Summary

Hmmm. I now realize that you already have a starter (Carl's) which you are activating. You aren't starting a new culture. Oh, well. You may find the link interesting anyway.

Jim

Ginny, you can get your bread to be a little more sour by giving it a looonng cool rise, like in the fridge for the first rise or before you shape your loaves. Some bakers add vinegar but I've never done that. The starter just seems to work as a leavening rather than being sour. By bread has never been extra sour and my starters are years old, I have several types and it's hard to tell them apart except some are more active, rise faster and higher than others. Some can go for months wo being fed. Carl's is one of those, it was my first one.