You absolutely can leave your sourdough starter out overnight after feeding it, particularly if you are going to bake with it the next day. I highly recommend feeding it a higher ratio to prolong it's peak and ensure that it's ready for the you in the morning.
If you leave your bulk fermentation at room temperature overnight it will likely overproof. You can put your dough in the refrigerator to slow things down until morning.
If you desire an extra-sour sourdough loaf, cover it and refrigerate immediately. The dough will rise slowly overnight or up to 24 hours. Allowing the dough to remain longer in the refrigerator isn't beneficial, as an extended time in the refrigerator will lead to off flavors and diminished dough strength.
If you leave your dough to bulk ferment at room temperature for 24 hours you will end up with a soupy mess (unless it's very, very cold in your home). Bulk fermentation can be done overnight, but you would need to adjust the amount of starter used in the dough and ensure the ambient temperature didn't go above 21C.
The only way you could do the bulk ferment in the refrigerator is if you left it there for a considerable amount of time - like between 3 and 7 days.
For a typical sourdough bread recipe, I let bulk fermentation play out at room temperature over 3 to 5 hours. But this time period is ultimately dictated by the bread you're making, what the recorded desired dough temperature is, and the temperature at which you keep the dough.
A loaf bulk fermenting at 70F/21C may take 12 hours to reach a target rise of 75%. At the 75% rise, the dough is shaped, where it rises 5% more to approximately 80%. The dough then goes into the refrigerator where its rise curve flattens fairly quickly and it slowly rises to 100% over the next 12 hours.
You absolutely can leave your sourdough starter out overnight after feeding it, particularly if you are going to bake with it the next day. I highly recommend feeding it a higher ratio to prolong it's peak and ensure that it's ready for the you in the morning.
When the bulk fermentation goes too long — often when the dough more than doubles or triples in volume — the dough can over ferment. You know the dough has over fermented if, when you turn it out to shape it, it is very slack — if it's like a wet puddle — and very sticky and lacking any strength and elasticity.
High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. You need to make sure that you keep your kitchen at a temperature between 24C - 28C (75F-82F). Alternatively, you'll need to adjust the amount of starter in your dough to suit the temperature of your kitchen.
Proofing sourdough overnight in the fridge is a great option if you like to bake first thing in the morning. What is this? You could plan out your sourdough baking timeline so that your bulk fermentation finishes in the evening. You would then shape your dough and place it into the fridge to proof overnight.
Can you leave dough to rise overnight at room temperature? Dough that's left to rise at room temperature typically takes between two and four hours to double in size. If left overnight, the dough can rise so high it will likely collapse on the weight of itself, making the dough deflate.
Let rest in a warm spot to rise. The dough is ready when it no longer looks dense and has doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 3-12 hours depending on the temperature of your ingredients, the potency of your starter and surrounding environment.
Ideally, you don't want to allow sourdough bread to cold ferment for longer than 72 hours. Even up to 48 hours, you do risk some loss of gluten structure unless you manipulate the amount of starter down.
Dough appearance should no longer be rough after sourdough bulk fermentation. It should be smooth looking and even a bit shiny. If you lift up a section, it should move together. You should see the formation of lines of gluten strands and/or webs of gluten that have formed.
The longer you leave your dough in the refrigerator, the more sour and complex flavors it will develop. You can easily leave a loaf in the refrigerator for 3 days before baking. I've gone as long as 5 days, but you will see some deterioration of the loaf after Day 3.
While some bakers use starters that only double in volume at peak activity, I'll tell you straight up: Don't settle. A starter that doubles in volume will work, but the overall fermentation and rising of dough might be slower, and the resulting bread potentially flatter.
Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.
The target bulk fermentation temperature range is 78-82F / 25.5-28C. Use a proofing chamber, if necessary, to keep a consistent dough temperature throughout bulk fermentation and continuously measure the dough temperature every 30 minutes at minimum.
How Long Does Bulk Fermentation Last? Bulk fermentation can typically last anywhere from 3.5 to 7 hours depending on the dough temperature, recipe, and amount of sourdough starter used. At 78ºF, bulk fermentation usually lasts about 4-4.5 hours for my typical sourdough bread.
You can chill your dough during either the first or second rise. Your yeast won't give you much love if it's asked to do both rises in the fridge, so it's best to do one or the other at room temperature.
While underworked dough can simply be fixed by a little more kneading, severely overworked dough cannot be fixed. Instead, the overworked dough will result in a hard loaf that will likely not be eaten. It's important not to overwork your dough and continually check for overworking throughout the kneading process.
Too little folding can result in weak dough. But too much folding can produce excessive tension and compressive forces. An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.
For brewing with Mr. Beer, we always recommend that you bottle your beer no later than 24 days in the fermenter. You can go longer but the longer your beer sits the more chance you have to get an infection and get off-flavors in your beer.
4. Bulk fermentation (aka first fermentation or first rise) is the dough's first resting period after yeast has been added, and before shaping. 5. Proofing (aka final fermentation, final rise, second rise, or blooming) is the dough's final rise that happens after shaping and just before baking.