Hi! I just started my first sourdough starter on Tuesday. I have been following a recipe I found on good housekeeping’s website. (Start with 113 grams of bread flour and 113 grams of water, then discard half before feeding again. Cover with damp towel. Feed once a day until day 4, then feed twice a day until it consistently doubles in size after feedings)
It was going great and doubled in size by day 3 with lots of bubbles. However, I didn’t like wasting the discard so on day 4, I just added 113 grams of flour and 113 grams of water without discarding half of my starter as usual. The rest of the day, it failed to double in size and had much less bubbles than day 3. It also developed hooch on top, which I poured off. I fed it again that evening but that time I did discard 113 grams of starter before feeding. This morning I realized that I probably didn’t feed it enough since I only discarded 1/3 of the volume of starter at the last feeding instead of 1/2. So this morning, I reduced the volume back to 226 grams of starter and added in 113 grams of flour and 113 grams of water. There is a layer of hooch on top but it is much less than there was yesterday. My best guess is that I didn’t feed it enough yesterday because I chose not to discard in the morning but I really don’t know. It has not bubbled very much today and looks more like it did on day 2 so I’m wondering if I need to instead only feed every 24 hours until it doubles in size again? Any help is appreciated!!

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