Noticed everyone posting sourdough fails this week - here's what I figured out about my starter

I was scrolling through here and saw like 8 posts in a row about sunken loaves or dough that wouldn't rise. My own starter has been acting sluggish for about 10 days now. Finally realized my tap water has been running colder since the weather changed, and that was stalling the fermentation by about 3 hours each feed. Switched to room temp bottled water for 3 days straight and it's bubbling like crazy again. Has anyone else hit a weird slump with their starter that turned out to be something simple like water temp?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarah_mason12d ago

Same thing happened to me but it turned out my cat had been sleeping on the warming mat lol.

jake63812d ago

Man oh man, this took me back. My buddy Mark had a sourdough starter that went totally dead for like two weeks. He was freaking out, changing flours, even bought a new jar. Finally he realized his kitchen sink had a slow drip and the water he was using was coming from that faucet. The water was sitting in the pipes too long and getting weird minerals in it. He switched to grabbing water from the fridge dispenser and his starter woke right back up. It's always the little stuff nobody thinks to check first.