Living · 6 pages · 12 min
Why a starter smells like nail polish when it is hungry
A starved starter piles up ethanol and acetic acid until a solvent smell appears.
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From the opening
The nail-polish smell is what a starter gives off after it has run out of flour sugars. Yeast ethanol and bacterial acetic acid then accumulate together and form sharp esters, especially ethyl acetate, which noses file with nail polish remover. The opening covers ethanol meeting acetic acid, ethyl acetate as the sharp note, and why warmth brings it sooner.
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Inside
- Ethanol meeting acetic acid
- Ethyl acetate as the sharp note
- Why warmth brings it sooner
- How hooch fits the same hunger
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Ethyl acetate from ethanol and acetic acid in starved starters
- Hooch as accumulated alcohol in an underfed sourdough culture