Hi Erica, I'm sorry to hear that your starter seems sluggish since you reduced its size, but I suspect this issue has more to do with the frequency of your feedings than it does with the size of your starter. 

Ideally you want to feed your starter when it's at its highest point of rising, or just beginning to fall, which keeps yeast activity vigorous. Allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings tends to lead to sluggish yeast behavior. What often happens in warmer months is that your starter begins to peak much earlier, and ends up collapsing between feedings. Over time this is going to result in sluggish yeast that doesn't perform as well in your baking. A smaller starter may be more vulnerable to this in the sense that it is more temperature sensitive and will heat up or cool down faster than a starter than has more bulk to it. 

Since your goal is to feed when your starter is peaking, you basically have two options. One is to add an additional feeding or two to your room temperature feeding routine in warmer weather, but I'm always reluctant to suggest this because most people don't have time to be feeding their starters 3-4 times a day. 

A more reasonable option is to offer your starter a relatively larger meal, which it will take longer to consume and ferment. And don't worry, a "larger meal" doesn't have to mean using up more flour, since you can reduce the portion of starter as compared to water/flour fed. For example, you might consider adopting a 1:3:3 ratio (starter:water:flour, by weight) in the summertime, which for your smaller starter could look like: 10g starter + 30g water +30g AP flour. The goal here is to line up your twice a day feedings closer to the peak, which should keep your starter active and vigorous. 

I suspect after a few days of attentively feeding at the peak your starter will return to its vigorous self, despite its more diminutive size. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! 

Barb

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