Hi Phil, as I've mentioned in earlier replies, it's not uncommon to see an initial burst of activity in a fledgling starter, which is actually a type of bacteria that gives off carbon dioxide, rather than the wild yeast. This type of activity also seems related to a subsequent delay in the yeast joining the party, which can continue for several days. Waiting to replenish your starter for the full 24 hours didn't cause the lull in rising you're experiencing; it's just something that can happen. 

There are two approaches you could consider at this point. First, you might want to just stay the course and continue feeding exactly as you have been doing. If you're worried about going through too much flour, you could convert  to a smaller starter, at least until your starter begins to rise predictably, but still keep the same twice a day feedings and ratio of ingredients. Usually patience wints out, and eventually your starter will begin to rise. 

The other option is to try the alternative feeding routine suggested to us by microbiologist and sourdough baker, Debra Wink, who found that lowering the pH of the starter seems to help pave the way for the wild yeast to activate. Here's this plan:

1. Feed only once a day. 

2. Feed with whole wheat or whole rye flour. If you don't have a wholegrain flour available, unbleached AP is okay. 

3. Feed with a ratio of 2:1:1 starter:water:flour, by weight. For example, if you wanted to adopt the smaller starter method, that would be 30g starter : 15g water : 15g wholegrain flour.  

Once your starter begins to rise predictably (twice), then you'll want to switch back to twice a day feedings, which will further promote yeast activity. You'll also want to gradually convert over to feeding with AP flour and increasing the percentage of flour/water fed to line up more with the 1:1:1 ratio. While you may see some sluggish behavior each time you change your starter's feeding routine because the organisms need time to adjust, when your starter begins to rise predictably once again, then you can consider your starter mature and ready to bake bread! Good luck, and let us know how it goes! 

Barb

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