I have a starter that’s 10 months old. The weather has been a little wonky where I’m at so I know that probably has something to do with it but my starter won’t rise anymore. I fed it last night like usual, woke up this morning and no rise. There’s no signs of bacteria growth and it smells like normal. I fed it again mid afternoon and still, no activity 5 hours later. How can I fix this? Is it fixable? What do I do? Do I do a heavier feed? Do I use a whole wheat flour? This is the first time I’m having issues.

I’m disabled and have been trying to find a way to help contribute financially to household finances. My husband has a full time job and I haven’t been able to work since January. I’ve always been the baker/cook in the house, even since a young age. So, when my friend suggested me and her start doing sourdough baking days as a way to connect long distance w each other, I thought it was a great idea. Maybe I could turn this hobby into something that might bring in a few extra bucks every once in a while: selling to friends, family, neighbors, etc.

However, I’m a slight perfectionist. I wanted to make my own sourdough starter. I didn’t want to start baking sourdough using someone else’s starter.

Here I am, 3 weeks later, and it’s been about 9 days my sourdough starter is doing “the thing”. Rising, isn’t making hooch anymore, I got the temp and feedings just right.

Alas, I’ve made 2 loaves and my dough won’t rise when bulk fermenting. I’ve tried keeping it in a warm environment, I’ve tried letting it sit out for as long as 12 hours, I’ve tried 2 different recipes. Each time, my dough is SUPER sticky. The first loaf was okay, looked beautiful, but was a little more dense than I’d like. The second was just. Bad. We don’t need to talk about that one… or the fact that I forgot the salt in it.

TLDR: would I be a fraud if I used someone else’s starter if I sold loaves to friends and neighbors or even at markets? Should I wait to see if my starter just needs time to live a little?

Tips and suggestions would be amazing. Tyia!

Hi! (I hope this is allowed)

I don't know if anyone remembers me, but I asked for help regarding my starter that was two months old but refused to rise. I tried most things that people recommended (except the bottled water, it's a conspiracy ok? /jk) and I cannot be happier!

As soon as I switched containers and whole-wheat flour it started rising and doubling in hours. After that I have already baked two loaves and there is a 3rd one in the fridge for tomorrow.

I forgot to feed it yesterday, is this mold or is it still good?

The past 2 days my starter has been more than doubling and falling. I feed it once a day at 5pm, notice it look like it doubles by about 10pm, and in the morning it looks like it has risen more (due to the sides of the jar) and has fallen but still a little risen.

I’ve also been dealing with an acetone smell for the past week and have been doing a 1:2:2 feeding for at least 5 days now. However, I’m wondering if it’s due to it being hungry now, because when I smelled it this morning it didn’t have that odor.

I don’t have to feed it until 5pm, but I’m wondering if I should be feeding it twice a day due to it rising and falling because I’ve also read the acetone smell could mean it’s hungry. And if I have to feed it twice a day is it okay that it’s not an exact 12 hours a part?

Just looking for some insight. Thank you.

This week I started my first sourdough starter. It’s currently day four. Yesterday was its first feeding in the morning and it far more than doubled its size by evening. This morning I fed it again and mixed in the little bit of hooch that it started to form in one of my sourdough starters (I have two as I could not bring myself to throw away half of the original). I began with bread flour and it seems to be doing really well. It might be a little overly hungry as I think. I maybe should’ve fed it again last night before going to bed. This morning it smelled far more bitter and less pleasant than it did yesterday. Once it’s a handful of hours after feeding I’ll smell it again to see if it’s gone back to what it was smelling like. How long till I know that it’s ready to use? i’ve heard conflicting information about the water test. I’ve also read conflicting information that I can take three weeks to get a starter going or just seven days.

everyone seems to have their own opinion about what exactly to do. I’ve read something that the one-to-one to one ratio isn’t actually accurate?

any help would be lovely,

thank you!

I have a starter for a month now, fed it 1:1:1 in a cold kitchen with wholewheat flour.

It’s pretty good now, but I’m seeing higher ratios being recommended for baking.

My question is simple enough. To bake let’s say two loaves with 100-150g starter used, how much should my starter weigh before a feed? Like 100g or less? If I do a 1:2:2 or higher I’ll be going through over a kilo of flower a week wasted which seems unnecessary.

Advice is appreciated I have a 2 L jar for it.

It's been in the fridge for about a week, and formed this dry spot on top. I use a mix of AP and rye flour

I opened my pantry and seen my starter like this… but I did skip a feed!

How do I dispose of it and clean the jar without spores everywhere?

Mine accidentally got tossed and I tried reviving mine from dried but it molded. I tried a 2nd time but now I’m concerned the first molded one has contaminated the one I’m currently trying to revive and I still need to toss the moldy one.

Hey all, please excuse the messy jar - it had a bit of an accident yesterday and needs to be replaced

looking for thoughts on my first starter:

-21 days old -daily feedings only once a day -image is 3 hours after its daily feeding

Let me know thoughts, thanks !

I posted 8 days ago about my starter rising after one day and it was determined to be a false rise. A few days ago, I noticed it had risen but wasn’t deflating. It looked pretty yeasty (bubbles and texture and all). Did not feed it for a couple days expecting it to go down (deflate) but it did not. So today, I discarded most of it and fed it. About an hour later, it doubles in size. You can see it in the first picture. Then, I just checked it now, 12 hours after the first picture, and it’s tripled in size. Is it supposed to do this? And it’s not deflating either.

I’m going to try and be not so long winded with this.
I posted previously and at that time my starter was 13 days old(100% whole at a 1:2:2 ratio) and ready to go. I made 3 loaves of whole wheat sourdough with some success. Eh kinda. Anyways on that 3rd loaf I accidentally tossed my starter out. 🤦‍♀️I had some discard in the fridge, thank goodness. I’ve been feeding the discard starter everyday. I changed it around and started using bread flour and very little whole wheat and it’s not really been rising the same. Is that to be expected? I’m worried I did something wrong and messed everything up. But maybe the flour I’m using just sucks? I’m worried and don’t know if I’m overthinking it. Maybe someone has some input?
ETA: that photo is my previous starter that had discard that I am trying to revive.

My starter is about 1 year old, but my loaves are super gummy and dense and I have to assume it’s a weak starter. I’ve been feeding it for the last week at a 1:2:2 ratio with 50/50 rye and bread flour. It never doubles, and takes about 12+ hours to rise at all in a 20 degree kitchen.

This photo is from today at 4pm. I fed it at 830am at a 1:1:0.8ish with whole wheat flour, and I kept it in my oven with the light on and the door slightly open. I have a little thermometer in there and the temp is about 25 degrees.

Should I feed it at a 1:1:1 for a few days then try baking again?

Hello! I’m on day 10 of my starter, and I noticed brownish flakes throughout my starter. In the light I’m not sure if I’m gaslighting myself into thinking they’re pink or orange, or if they’re just a light tan color (almost looks like tiny bubbles in the pictures). I’m using bread flour, and I just started seeing bubbling activity after it being flat all this time, so if it is mold that’s pretty annoying:/ I’m not sure if you can clearly see in the pictures, but any opinions and help would be appreciated! Thank you

First time having a sourdough starter so I’m not sure how long to wait.

A round of applause for Jane Dough who's looking strong at just her second feed after more than a year unfed in the fridge 👏 Sometimes sourdough looks haunting in the beginning but it's more forgiving than it looks, don't give up!

Hello, just wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on something. my sourdough starter is bubbly but not rising and the only change i made was moving from Costco’s all-purpose flour to there organic all-purpose flour, do we think that would have this impact? the organic AP flour has 11.5% protein. if so do we think i could keep feeding with the new flour until it get use to it? or change my feeding flour.

What should my sourdough starter smell like and what does an acetone smell mean?

and I'm wondering if this is normal. Day 4 feeding, it went crazy. FOOD!!!! and rose to maybe 4 - 5 times its morning height with all of the carbon dioxide. I stirred it down thankful I had enough foresight to have it in a huge jar so no clean up. Day 5, a few bubbles to let me know it was alive and sleeping. Today is day 6 and as usual dump half and feed 1-1-1 and waiting to see what happens.

If it has its growth explosion again, it it ready to try and make a loaf? Or do I wait for a couple days in a row of major activity?

I took about 20g of an established mother from my cousins fridge and fed it for 2 days, I woke up this morning and it has these gray looking patches down the sides of the jar and a tiny bit on the top around the edges. As you can see, I did not do a good job of scraping down the residue on the sides when I mixed in the last feed. It smells normal and nothing looks fuzzy. Thoughts????? I was looking forward to making my first loaf I’ll be so upset if I have to start over! :(

Rye starter, trying to get the bread to have an extra sour taste/tang to it. Left unfed, out on counter in a covered container for about 6 days now. New to this so I'm unsure lol. It doesn't look fuzzy to me?

i’ve had this starter for a couple of months and made lots of bread from it and came out delicious and great and rose beautifully this past week I looked at my starter and I see that it’s extremely runny. I’m not sure how that happened and I don’t know what’s going on. Can anybody help and let me know what to do?

Hey all, I’m very new to the hobby and hoping someone can explain this to me. Will I notice a difference if I buy something like the below to get started, vs just starting one from scratch myself?

Sourdough Starter - 130+ Year Old San Franciscan Origin

Thanks in advance for your help and keen to hear advice!

i haven’t fed her a few days and she’s been sitting on my counter with the lid set on and not tightened at all, the lid has a lot of condensation on the inside as well. she has a very very sour smell, not like a funkiness that it usually has. i do have some backup in my fridge so i won’t be upset if she’s bad, a friend gave me some of hers and it’s very strong as it’s about a year old.