Is the clear liquid in my starter hooch or water separation?

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Is the clear liquid in my starter hooch or water separation?

By Tom Cucuzza, The Sourdough Journey © September 2023

Many new bakers see a clear liquid forming on their starter and they assume it is hooch, or alcohol, which typically means your starter is starving. However, water separation can easily be mistaken for hooch, and it means the opposite — your starter is weak.
Mistaking water separation for hooch can lead to premature discarding and refeeding, which weakens your starter.
Hooch or Water Separation?
If you keep your starter at room temperature and you see a clear liquid forming on top, it can be two things:
1) Hooch (alcohol – a by-product of vigorous fermentation), or
2) Water separation (a symptom of a weak starter).
How can you tell the difference when they may look the same?
It depends what happened before you see the clear liquid on top.
Hooch can only form on a starter after it has been completely covered with bubbles and has risen, fallen, and all of the bubbles have subsided. This is the only time hooch can be created. It is created when the microbes have consumed all of the flour. If they consume all of the flour, they leave a lot of evidence — lots of bubbles — before the clear liquid forms on top. A starter never secretly consumes all of its food.
Water separation occurs before the starter has vigorously risen and fallen and consumed all of the food. It is impossible for hooch to form on an inactive starter that has not vigorously bubbled and/or risen and fallen.
This is a very common mistake. When bakers see a clear liquid on top of their starter, they immediately assume it is hooch – which means their starter is starving – then they discard and refeed. If you discard and refeed a weak starter before it peaks, you make it weaker.
What is the location of the clear liquid?
Clear liquid on top – Clear liquid on top of your starter could be either hooch or water separation. However, hooch almost always appears on the top of you starter.
Clear liquid in middle or bottom – If you see a clear liquid in the middle or on the bottom of your starter, it is almost always water separation. It is very uncommon for hooch to occur in the middle or bottom of your starter.
FINAL EXAM:
Q. My starter has a clear liquid on top. What is it?
A. The correct answer is — it is impossible to know without knowing what the starter did before the clear liquid formed.
A clear liquid on top of a starter that has vigorously risen and fallen and was covered with bubbles (which have subsided) is hooch. If you see hooch on your starter, discard and refeed.
A clear liquid on top of a starter that has not vigorously risen and fallen is water separation. Never discard and refeed a weak starter before it peaks in volume or bubble activity. It weakens your starter. Give it more time. Always wait until it consumes its prior feeding — no matter how long it takes.

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Tom Cucuzza

Is it hooch or water separation?

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