Hi Cathy, it sounds to me like your starter is getting a little overwhelmed with sourdough waste, and is getting thinner in texture and performing sluggishly as a result. The ratio of ingredients of starter:water:flour by weight in your starter is roughly 454g starter : 100g water : 100g flour, which is about 4.5:1:1, which means you're offering a relatively smaller meal to a large amount of starter. This results in a starter that peaks rather quickly, but is likely also to fall completely before it's due for its next feeding. Feeding like this isn't ideal for your starter health and will result in sluggish yeast. I would encourage you to discard a larger portion of starter each time you feed it, and consider adjusting the ratio of starter:water:flour to line up more with our sourdough starter maintenance routine.

If you find your starter is still peaking well before it's due for it's next feeding then you could consider offering the starter a relatively larger meal (more water/flour as compared to starer fed) to slow it down. Especially if it's warm where you live (greater than 80°F), feeding with cool water and reducing the percentage of starter fed to something more like 1:2:2 or even 1:3:3 (starter:water:flour, by weight) may be necessary so that your starter is closer to its peak at the 12 hour mark. I expect that adjusting your maintenance routine in this way will make a big difference in both the texture and rising behavior of your sourdough starter. Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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