Tried a 10-day sourdough starter from scratch and it was a total fail

I followed every tip online for a week straight, feeding it twice a day, but by day 8 it still smelled like dirty socks and had zero rise. Turned out my tap water had too much chlorine killing the yeast before it could get going. Anyone else had a batch crash due to water quality issues?

3 comments

3 Comments

umar491mo ago

Day 7 was when my starter started smelling like cheap yogurt and actually doubled in size (I used filtered water from day one though). Honestly I think most people blame water when really they're just not patient enough or their kitchen is too cold for the yeast to work. My cousin lives in a city with awful chlorine and she just lets her tap water sit out for 24 hours before using it (works fine for her). I bet if you tried that or grabbed a cheap Brita filter you'd see way better results on your next attempt. Maybe give it another shot without jumping straight to blaming the water supply.

shane_hayes1mo ago

Pretty soon we'll be blaming the water for sourdough fails instead of just admitting we forgot to feed it for three days... That's the real killer, not the tap. Maybe try a space heater before a whole water filtration system.

drewr151mo ago

Yeah but letting tap water sit out works for some more than others. I think your cousin just got lucky honestly.