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Remembering my first sourdough starter disaster back in college
Back in my old apartment in Tempe, I tried making a sourdough starter using just some all-purpose flour and tap water. I'd feed it once a day, get a few bubbles, and then it would just die or smell really bad after about 4 days. I must have thrown out five jars before I gave up. Now, I use a kitchen scale to measure everything, I keep it on a schedule, and I only use filtered water. The big change came after I watched a video from a baker in San Francisco who said the chlorine in tap water was killing my yeast. My starter is over a year old now and it's like a pet. What was the one tip that finally made your sourdough work?
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blakeallen3d ago
That San Francisco baker is mostly right about chlorine, but it's not the only thing. My tap water is super hard with lots of minerals, and that was the real problem for me. The pH was off. I started using bottled spring water from the grocery store, the cheap gallon kind. My starter went from a sad, gray sludge to actually doubling in size within 12 hours. The mineral content in your water makes a huge difference that nobody talks about.
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