I began developing my starter with these instructions about 3 weeks ago. It has been a wonderfully fun process. My starter did what it was supposed to do, and after the first week, I was able to refrigerate it. Since then, I have given three starter babies away to my mom, sister, and aunt. I printed out "birth certificates" for them with the date, Mom's name (Momma Heater, since she was born on top of my water heater), directions, a place for the baby's name, etc. It sounds dorky, but my family loved it, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I appreciate so much the detailed directions you provide here and the chat service as well. You have been most helpful in so many ways. My favorite recipe so far is the sourdough pizza crust. It rises beautifully and is a great use of the discard. I made some for a friend today, and she was very pleased. I'm fairly new to baking with yeast and definitely a novice with sourdough. I am curious how the starter will change with age. Will the flavor be different? It is quite mild now. I'm going to begin the sourdough English muffins recipe tonight and refrigerate the dough and see how that affects the flavor. I think the best part of this experience has been finding something very new to me related to the culinary arts. I wouldn't call myself a master chef, but I am rather experienced and do well with recipe adaptations. Working with yeast and a sourdough starter have challenged me, and I had to start over as a beginner as far as following directions, watching videos, reading reviews and the blog, and learning from successes and failures. Again, thank you so much for making this process easier and helping me be a success at something very new and different. You truly are a wonderful resource. What a great idea to give out birth certificates with your starters! They really are like children, aren't they? To answer your question, over time your starter will develop a stronger, more sour flavor. Also, sourdough bread recipes really excel when fermented for a longer period of time, the flavor just can't be replicated with a short rise. We are happy to provide as much help as we can, but it sounds like you are becoming a sourdough master already!-Jon

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