Hello and thanks for this post! I have a starter that has been going for years and usually produced great bread. But every once in a while, the dough goes wrong: it just does not feel or smell right--it tears in clumps rather than stretching, and no amount of kneading will get it to feel right (I usually make no-knead dough); does not rise normally; never feels "alive" the way it should; and if I bake it anyway, produces flat, very sour loaves.
My solution is to feed the starter for a few days and try again, which works. . . but can you explain what goes wrong, so we can avoid in future? I'd love to understand what has happened to affect the "feel" of the dough so much! Thanks.

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