My first sourdough starter was a sad gray soup for 9 days, then boom | Bread Baking Basics

Matthew Ross · 2026-10-14T09:00:04.27959+00:00

I started my very first sourdough starter on a Sunday about 3 weeks ago and for the first 9 days it was just this sad gray liquid with a few bubbles and honestly I almost threw it in the trash twice. I was feeding it 1 cup of King Arthur flour and 1 cup of tap water every morning at 7am before work, and it did basically nothing. Then last Friday I switched to bottled water because somebody at my local bakery in Portland told me our tap water might be killing the yeast, and by Saturday morning it had doubled and was bubbling like crazy. The smell changed too, it went from smelling like old socks to something sour and kinda like yogurt. I baked my first loaf yesterday and the rise was not great but the crust was decent which is more than I expected. I had no idea water could make that big of a difference, has anyone else had their starter die because of tap water or is that just a myth?

The Community Guide

Loading…

My first sourdough starter was a sad gray soup for 9 days, then boom | Bread Baking Basics - The Community Guide