ray189•1mo ago

Appreciation post: My sourdough went from flat bricks to decent loaves after I stopped using tap water from my Phoenix apartment.

Honestly, switching to bottled water for the starter made the whole difference in about 10 days. Has anyone else had their local water just kill a culture?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_holly1mo ago

Yeah, I had to switch to filtered water for mine too... the chlorine in our city water just wrecked it for weeks.

uma6851mo ago

Oh man, "flat bricks" is a painfully accurate description of my first attempts. My starter was so sad I almost named it after my ex.

william_jackson651mo ago

Wait, did you name your starter after your ex because it was flat or because it was sour? In my experience, flat bricks usually mean your starter wasn't active enough before baking, not that it was sad. Maybe @uma685 just needed to feed it a few more times. I've thrown out more starters than I can count, it's a tough learning curve.