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My sourdough starter took 23 days to actually work, not 7
Honestly, every guide online says a starter is ready in a week, but mine sat there looking dead for over three weeks. I followed the exact same flour and water ratio every morning and night, but nothing happened until day 18 when I finally saw a few real bubbles. Turns out my tap water in Columbus has too much chlorine, so switching to filtered water was the fix. That should have been the first thing listed on any recipe page, not buried in the comments. I wasted a full bag of organic rye before I figured it out. For anyone struggling, check your water source before you blame your flour or the temperature. Has anyone else spent way longer than the recipe promises just because of basic water quality?
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lilyfisher2mo ago
@ellis.nina same thing with my tap water in Columbus, that chlorine just killed my starter dead for 19 days until I switched to the filtered jug and got bubbles by the next morning. Mineral heavy pipes got me too, I bought a cheap counter filter and now my dough actually rises like it’s supposed to.
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ellis.nina2mo ago
Remember burning through two jars of active dry yeast before learning my apartment's old pipes were adding extra minerals that slowed things down. Swapped to bottled water for baking and suddenly everything rose like normal. Now I keep a jug of it just for dough, which feels ridiculous but works.
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