Hi, Diana! It's so great to hear that you're learning new things on your sourdough adventures. Without knowing more about your techniques, ingredients, and equipment, it's a little hard to diagnose your dense bread, but there are two very common causes of dense breads, especially in newer sourdough bread bakers. The first is a bit too much flour in your dough, which is particularly common if  you're measuring your ingredients by volume. If measuring in grams isn't an option (it's always going to be the most accurate!), then following the methods outlined in our How to Measure Flour Guide can definitely help keep this more consistent. Another possibility is that your dough simply needed more time to rise. Sourdough is wonderful, but it's slower than commercial yeast and also a little less predictable. When baking sourdough recipes, it's always best to look at rising times as more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule, especially as the weather gets cooler. If you'd like to chat in more detail about your bread, though, do feel free to reach out to our Baker's Hotline! We'd be happy to talk through your process and see if there's any way we can help you get a higher rising loaf. Happy baking! 

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