Not sure if this has been asked before, and I can't find a search for this section. So a little history on mine: I grew some yeast water first, then took 50g of that and AP flour to get it going. Fed for about a week every day, twice a day using regular water. I used discard recipes from your website a couple times. It was bubbling every feeding with lots of very small bubbles, though not really increasing in bulk. It seemed pretty healthy though and had made a good tasting loaf. So I figured it was time to refrigerate it.

A week later took it out (last night), discarded all but about 50g and fed it around 225g each water and flour (enough to make the basic sourdough bread recipe on your site and still have leftover to keep it going). A little over half the water was yeast water this time. By the way, thanks for answering my question on that in another of your blogs! I woke up around 7 this morning to my quart jar almost overflowing. I excitededly made a loaf of bread (which my wife claimed she could eat the whole thing at once because it was so delicious!).

This brings me to my question. After stirring and measuring out the starter for the recipe, I scooped 50 grams into a clean mason jar to feed. I had a bit left over, so I thought I'd try this "float test" I've been reading about. My super bubbly and obviously vigorous starter sank like a rock to the bottom of a glass of water. I ignored the "results." So the question: how reliable is this test? It seemed to me my starter was ripe for baking, and it made a delicious sandwich loaf. But it failed this test; what gives?

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