Hi Rachel, warm temperatures definitely present their own challenges to sourdough baking! For one thing, as you have observed, your starter rises and falls very rapidly. Ideally you want to replenish your starter when it's at its peak of rising, or just beginning to fall,  so rapid rising could lead to 3 or 4 feedings a day at room temperture, which isn't practical for most bakers. The reason it's important to feed at the peak is that this keeps the yeast activity vigorous. Allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings tends to lead to more sluggish yeast behavior. One thing you can do to slow down fermentation is to feed with cool water (and even cool flour). You can also adjust the ratio of ingredients in your starter to help slow things down. Offering your starter a relatively large meal tends to slow down fermentation, so you might consider switching from the 1:1:1 ratio by weight of starter, water and flour called for in our sourdough starter recipe to something more like 1:2:2, or even 1:3:3. For example, 1:2:2 would be: 1/4 cup starter (2 ounces, 57g) + 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 113g) water + 1 scant cup (4 ounces, 113g) flour. If the heat is still causing things to happen too quickly, consider keeping your starter container in a cool water bath, and refrigerating it between feedings if you aren't able to feed it again, and it's getting close to its peak. Of course, a mature starter can dwell in the refrigerator for extended periods, with revival feedings at room temperature on the other end to help bring it back to full vitality. When it comes to making sourdough bread some of the same strategies can be applied. Mix the bread with very cool water and try to keep the dough temperature in the 75-78ºF range. Recipes that call for refrigeration of the dough at some point in the process (as this one does) are great choices for warmer climates. Here are a few other sourdough bread recipes that incorporate refrigeration: Pain Au Levain, No Knead Sourdough, and Extra Tangy Sourdough,. I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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