My sourdough starter went 0 to 100 after I started feeding it leftover pickle juice

I had a 9 day old starter that just sat there bubbling maybe twice a day, totally flat loaves every single time. My brother jokingly said to add a spoonful of brine from his pickle jar because 'the yeast likes a little acid punch.' I tried it once last week and the thing ballooned in about 4 hours, no joke. I also cut my feeding time from 12 hours to 8 hours and switched to bread flour instead of all purpose. Has anyone else thrown random pantry liquids into their starter and gotten weirdly great results? I'm scared this is a one hit wonder.

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spencer_coleman1mo agoTop Commenter

Whoa, that's wild! Pickle juice is a new one for me, but honestly, it kind of makes sense. That brine is full of live bacteria and yeast, so you basically gave your starter a shot of extra microbes. Your mileage may vary though, cause that tangy stuff can mess with the pH in a good way or a bad way depending on the day. I'd say ride the wave while it lasts, and don't be shocked if it settles back down later. The bread flour switch is probably doing a lot of the heavy lifting too.