UPDATE: I did a "scientific" followup study to determine whether it was indeed the water. I pulled the starter out of the fridge and divided it in two. I fed one with Brita filtered water and the other with bottled spring water. Sure enough, the one fed with bottled spring water was bubbling within four hours. The one fed with Brita, on the other hand, was barely active, even after 12 hours. I went a step further and tried to resurrect the one I hurt with the Brita and it took three days of feeding with bottled spring water before it came back to life. All in all, a very informative study.

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