Hello, I am 4 weeks into my first starter and not sure what I need to do. I have read so much and tried so many different things that I don’t even know what to continue with. Started with bread flour, day 3 had lots of bubbles and doubled.
Then nothing for several days. So i added whole wheat flour… no rise again for awhile then i added rye. I was doing 1:1:1 ratio the whole time. Then got this.
Continued feeding and no rise again (just bubbles). Went to 1:2:2 feedings with bread and whole wheat flour. Now I’m on day 82736 today is 4 weeks of this. Last 3 days I upped it to 1:3:3 and it seems to thin out quicker and has bubbles, rises slightly. But still no doubling
This is today. I have been stirring every couple hours and that seems to get more bubbles? Last feed was 8/19 830pm. It’s now 4:20pm. All I did today was maybe half a tablespoon of rye flour and mixed it in. My house is kept warm. I have a thermometer by my starter. Usually 72-80ish. I’ve tried the oven with the light on, a heating pad, spring water, filtered fridge water (warmed up to about 90), boiled tap water (and then cooled)
There’s your problem. No rise, so continued feeding and increased the feed to-boot.
Ruel of thumb is feed according to the strength of the starter.
If your pet isn’t eating the food you give it, so there’s food left in the bowl, then why would the answer be to add more food to the bowl?
If your starter hasn’t eaten the food (it didn’t bubble at all) then don’t feed till it shows sign of activity.
If your starter has eaten a little (some bubbles and a little rise) then top the bowl up with a small feed.
If it’s ravenous and keeps emptying the bowl (very active and within 12 hours) then feed more and more often.
That makes sense! I was going off of the fact that it was thinned out (paint consistency) so I thought i wasn’t feeding enough so I’ve just been too generous. So I’m assuming just skip tonight’s feed? @Abe
If you mix flour and water together it will degrade even if it’s not a strong starter yet. And even when quiet just because the yeasts aren’t strong enough to leaven the starter things are still happening. What you can do is while your starter is sulking and you’ve told it "you don’t move from the table till you’ve eaten your dinner you can add a little flour, a teaspoon at a time, just to thicken it up. Then leave it alone just stirring every 12 hours. Warmth is also very important so make sure you’re keeping it as close to 75-78F as possible.
P.s. day 3 looks impressive but it’s not all coming from the critters you want in a starter. What happens after day 3 is just the starter sorting itself out.
Ahh okay… I have read a lot of misinformation then. I will not over feed going forward. I’ll probably be back tomorrow bc I don’t want to do this for another 4 weeks haha. Thanks for your help! So simple and I have been struggling for so long
4 weeks is a long time. Probably the biggest issue was over feeding it to wake it up. If you keep the starter at the perfect temperature and are careful with the feeds then it would be fine to give it daily feeds and it’ll be ok. However when it goes quiet, you carry on discarding starter and also increase the feeds plus frequency then all what is happening is you’re throwing away all the good stuff ending up with fresh flour and water.
Doesn’t have to be 50:50 (although that would be good), can even be all bread or AP flour but wholegrain does have more of the good stuff in it.
It definitively makes sense. I wondered about upping the feeds, it’s the advice I had gotten from someone else. I have about 4 bags of different flours, I kept buying and trying different things. I’ll continue with the 50/50 bread & WW ratio. @Abe
Doing well. While it is reacting like this repeat the 1:1:1 feed. If it slows down then hold back. If it begins to speed up and begin to fall then we’ll move onto larger feeds.
today is 4 weeks of this. Last 3 days I upped it to 1:3:3 and it seems to thin out quicker and has bubbles, rises slightly. But still no doubling
so I’ve just been too generous. So I’m assuming just skip tonight’s feed? 
you can add a little flour, a teaspoon at a time, just to thicken it up. Then leave it alone just stirring every 12 hours. Warmth is also very important so make sure you’re keeping it as close to 75-78F as possible.
