My sourdough starter finally doubled in 4 hours after I switched to filtered water from the grocery store on 5th | Baking Fails And Wins

Jesse Craig · 2026-10-07T07:15:06.72535+00:00

So I have been messing with this starter for almost 3 weeks and it was always flat and sad, like barely any rise, maybe a quarter inch if I got lucky. I read somewhere online that tap water chlorine can kill the wild yeast, and I figured that was probably not my problem since my neighbor bakes great bread with the same tap. But then I was at the grocery store on 5th getting milk and I grabbed a gallon of the refill filtered water just to try it, cost me 40 cents. Fed the starter with that water and some King Arthur bread flour at 8 pm, went to bed, and at 7 am it had doubled and was domed up over the jar rim. I actually yelled. Then I baked a boule with it and got real oven spring, like the loaf went from a flat blob to something with a nice ear on the score. Been chasing that for 3 weeks and it was just the water the whole time. My tap must have a chlorine spike right now or something. Has anyone else had their starter suddenly wake up from changing one thing, and was it the water or something else for you?

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My sourdough starter finally doubled in 4 hours after I switched to filtered water from the grocery store on 5th | Baking Fails And Wins - The Community Guide