Hi Ame, with your warmer conditions right now it's quite possible that your starter will require at least twice a day feedings when kept at room temperature, even with the reduced percentage of starter as compared to water/flour in your feeding routine. To keep yeast activity vigorous you want to feed your starter when it's at its highest point of rising, or just beginning to fall. Allowing the starter to collapse significantly between feedings tends to result in sluggish yeast behavior. 

Feeding with cooler water should help slow down the rate of fermentation, and in a pinch you can refrigerate your starter when it's close to the peak if you're not able to feed it again at that time. However, if you find your starter consistently falls between feedings, then adding a second feeding may be necessary. 

Improving yeast activity in the starter should have a positive impact on how your bread rises, although a lot of factors contribute to a successful rise (ripe starter, good recipe, appropriate proofing, proper scoring, added steam during baking), so it's hard to pinpoint exactly what is holding your bread back. Following a good recipe, with good guidance along the way, is an excellent way to achieve success. You might want to consider trying our Pain Au Levain recipe, with the help of Martin Philip and his son, Arlo. We have lots of great recipes and resources to help bring your sourdough bread baking to the next level. 

I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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