Patrick Green

May 5, 2019 at 2:50pm

So, I'm losing my mind here, I'm on my 5th round of trying to get my starter really active & healthy for baking. The starter method I've been following is the standard discard/feed every 12 hours. I'm using filtered tap water, I keep 10g starter in the jar, then feed, and I keep the lid just resting on the top of the jar, not screwed down at all. It's also living in a proofer set at 76F. I'm using 70% King Arthur Bread flour, 30% dark rye to feed. Everything goes well until I venture into the 1:4:4 ratio range (10g starter, 40g flour, 40g water) for feeding. Prior to 1:4:4, I'm usually getting over a doubling in volume, but once I hit 1:4:4, I'll get 1.75x growth, and the next feed 12 hours later at 1:4:4 I'll get 1.5x growth, and it'll continue that way until it nearly "dies", with no growth, starter turns runny, and doesn't exactly smell like active starter any longer. When this happens, I go back to 1:1:1 feeding, let it sit for 36 hours, and it'll revive, and I start the process all over again over the course of 1-2 weeks. This has happened 5 times in a row. Any ideas? Thank you!
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