Hi,
First off, many many MANY thanks for the wonderful site you guys have put together. Great resource for any baking question I have!! I've just started on my sourdough journey and have been able to make my starter. I'm using T65 bread flour for my bakes and the starter. Couple of questions:

1. Starter maintenance: I currently have a pot of about 500-600g of starter in the refrigerator. To bake, I take say about 80g, add another 80g of flour and water and repeat this 2 or 3 times. Each time, I discard about half of what is there and I use the entire active starter for the bread. For the mother pot, I add a similar amount (40g flour + water = 80g refill), mix it, leave it for 3hrs at room temperature and then refrigerate. Is this ok? Or should I not use any of the refrigerated starter; only store some part of the starter I used for my bread?

2. My starter seems to double in size in about 3hrs (its usually around 80-85F where I'm at). However, I don't get a decent rise in the final bread - always a little dense. Any idea why? Should I feed it longer before using so the yeast gets more active?

Thanks,
Venky.

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