Hi there Barb,

On day 12 of my first starter, which I began with (eeek) bleached AP and distilled water, switching to unbleached on Day 4. Regarding method, I'm not proud of it, but I've jumped around quite a lot based on my (largely uneducated) judgement of progress that appeared uncharacteristically slow. I began with a starter recipe I found on BBC Good Food (adding 1;1, no discarding), but after finding it sluggish discarded half and switched to Sarah Owens's 1:1:1 (Day 5 - 8). For the past three days I have done your 2:1:1, using Bob's Red Mill stone-ground WW. Lots of gorgeous bubbles suffused throughout and getting a pretty good rise, about 2/3 bigger in size, with a slight boozy character. (My flat is pretty warm, and I believe the starter is doing well in the ambient temperature.)

And so... I've noticed that the starter's rise reaches a peak around the 6-8hr mark and then starts to fall... (and with only feeding once a day, it sits there flat hovering a little above the initial feeding line for a long time...). Any idea about what might be happening here? Yesterday and today the starter also smelled particularly alcoholic just before feeding, pretty strongly so... which I suspect has to do with the WW and increased acidity levels. Wondering if it's time to switch back to AP feeding twice daily but concerned about the falling... Any help and suggestions for how to move forward much appreciated!

Also, how do I know when the starter is mature and ready to go? I have mixed results with the float test, sometimes it works beautifully and then a few hours later it wont work at all... Looking forward to your guidance.

–Gabrielle

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