Hi John, patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to cultivating a sourdough starter, and as long as you're seeing bubbles I think there's hope that your starter will begin to rise predictably. Are you still feeding with half bleached AP flour? If so, I would switch to unbleached AP flour. I can't say for sure if the bleached flour is holding back your starter, but it's probably not helping it much. 

I'm always a little torn when I try to advise someone who is as far along in the process as you are, and is still not seeing any rise. It does sound like your starter has hit the dreaded lull in rising that can occur around day 4 and go on for several days or even weeks. As I said, patience will normally pay off and even if you continue exactly as you're doing, eventually your starter should begin to rise predictably. However, if you're really not seeing any rise at all, you might want to try the alternative feeding routine suggested to us by microbiologist and sourdough baker, Debra Wink, who discovered that lowering the pH of the starter environment tends to pave the way for the wild yeast to kick in. Here's the plan:

1. Feed once a day. 

2. Feed with whole wheat or whole rye flour. 

3. Feed with a ratio of 2 parts starter : 1 part water : 1 part wholegrain flour, by weight. If you're worried about going through too much flour, you could switch to a smaller starter to save on flour, at least until your starter begins to rise predictably. With a smaller starter, your once a day feeding would look like: 30g starter + 15g water the 15g wholegrain flour. 

Once your starter begins to rise predictably (twice) it's important to resume twice a day feedings, which will further promote yeast activity. At that point you may want to gradually transition to feeding with unbleached AP flour, and up the water/flour portion in your feedings so that you are able to replenish your starter when it's at its peak of rising, or just beginning to fall, which will keep yeast activity strong. Allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings can lead to sluggish yeast behavior. This is the point when you may want to try a 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 ratio, especially if it's warm where you live and your starter is peaking after only a few hours. 

I hope this helps! I know it's a lot of information, so let me know if you have further questions. 

Barb

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