I have tried everything with my Sourdough Starter. I started by following a recipe I found on YouTube. The first one I had bubbled and rose a little bit but after about 11 days got moldy. So I started over. It’s doing the same thing (minus getting moldy). It’s been 16 days and it bubbles a little bit, maybe rises a little bit but it’s not much and doesn’t happen every day. We’ve tried a few different feeding methods. None of them seem to change anything. Right now we feed it with 25g of starter and 75g whole wheat flour and 75g of water. I live in Minnesota and it’s winter so our house is a little bit cooler. It’s between 68 and 70 degrees. We leave the starter on the counter. For our water we use tap water. I’ve watched YouTube videos and I’ve looked at various forums and I can’t figure out what’s going on. It just seems like the starter isn’t very active. The most activity I’ve seen is bubbles in the starter and if you squint and look just right it may rises a tiny bit on some days. Any help would be appreciated…I’m not sure what to do next. I will include a picture of how much rise I’m talking about.
For a starter that’s not doing much that is an overfeed. For now give it a good stir every 12 hours. Nothing else.
Get it up to 75F if you can. Do you have any room on top of your fridge?
I do have some room above my fridge. The fridge does get warm on top so I will put it up there. I just stirred it and will let it sit. How long should I let it sit? Also do you have a recommendation for how much I should be feeding it going forward? Thank you for your help.
Give it a few days. See how it responds. When you do start feeding it again start off slowly and only increase when the strength increases. Once it begins to show signs of fermentation then try a 2:1:1 feed at 24 hourly intervals. If it bubbles up within 12 hours then at 12 hourly intervals. If it bubbles up and begins to fall within 12 hours then switch to a 1:1:1 feed… and so on.
Ok, I will do this. I’ll report back!