Optimizing the Starter Refresh

I posted a few weeks ago about trouble with trying to reduce the amount of waste when refreshing my starter. I found that the ratio of new ingredients to old starter was important.

I would still like to reduce the amount of waste, so I have continued to experiment with ratios of old starter to new ingredients. I determined in the old post that 4 oz. of old starter added to 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water (all measurements by weight) produced an energetically refreshed starter, but I only need 4 oz. for a new loaf of bread, leaving 4 oz. of waste in the next refresh.

I decided to try keeping the ratio of old starter:flour:water at 1:1:1, but using smaller amounts. My first reduced-waste experiment used 3 oz. quantities of each component. The start of the refresh looks like this:

Ten hours later it has grown to this:

It is a nice, healthy starter that went on to make a nice, healthy loaf of bread.

The following week, I took this experiment one step further by using 2 oz. of each ingredient. I don't have side views, but this experiment was also successful. At the start of the refresh, I had this:

That turned into this in 7-1/2 hours

That starter also produced a nice loaf of bread.

Now, I have a waste-free process. The 2+2+2 refresh leaves 6 oz. of starter, and I use 4 oz. for my bread. That leaves 2 oz. for my next refresh.