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Finally got my sourdough starter to double in under 8 hours
I used to babysit my starter for days, feeding it twice and getting maybe a 20% rise. Then I switched to filtered water instead of tap and started using a kitchen scale for exact measurements. After about 2 weeks of that, it finally took off and doubled in 6 hours flat. Has anyone else had their tap water mess with their starter like that?
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ray3561mo ago
Hold on with the spring water thing - that might be overkill. Filtered tap water usually does the trick just fine once the chlorine evaporates. Leaving it out in an open pitcher for a few hours or overnight gets rid of the chlorine without buying bottled water. I use a simple Brita filter and my starter does just as good as when I tried expensive spring water. Probably saved me some money and plastic waste over the years.
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evan_green521mo ago
Hold on, tap water? You had chlorine or chloramine in your water killing off the good bacteria in your starter? That explains so much about my first few failed attempts. I was using city tap water and my starter smelled like feet and barely bubbled. Switched to spring water in a jug from the store and it woke up in three days. I never went back to tap for any of my baking now.
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lilya761mo ago
Tap water is a total sneaky culprit. I had the same thing happen with mine, it was sluggish and smelled like vinegar and feet for weeks. Switched to a gallon of store bought spring water and within 72 hours the thing was rising like crazy. Now I keep a big jug of it just for my starter and it's been consistent ever since. The chlorine thing is real but even after letting tap sit out overnight, I never got the same results as spring water. Something about the minerals in spring water must make the yeast happier.
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