Aaron and I have both had starters crash recently. They're going fine, and then...flatline.
The curious thing is, our methods have little in common. We use different wheat and different water. The few things we do similarly are things that have general agreement among sourdough bakers.
It's only the wild starters that are affected, the ones we've generated from flour and water. Aaron doesn't use commercial sourdough starters--I do. None of my commercial sourdough starters have had problems.
In my case, the ones that have died have started out quite sour, almost like salt rising starter. One crashed before I used it, another made one very sour loaf and one that was much less sour. And that was it.
So that's the reason for the delay in the next sourdough boule. However, I have some good commercial starter in the proofer now, and expect to be able to make some bread by tomorrow.
We think there is a mysterious sourdough starter murderer on the loose. If there were any way the cat could have done it, we'd have a suspect. But there's not.
I think the trouble with the starters crashing may be the starter to flour ratio. One part water to one part flour measured by volume gives quite a wet mixture, and will starve a starter (even in the fridge), because the wetter a starter is the higher it's metabolism. Equal parts by weight would be be a roughly 2 cups flour to one cup water, and would be a much better feed. I had never had any reliable luck with sourdough myself until I discovered the sourdoughhome.com website. Since finding it I have learned so much, and even made my own starter from just flour and water. It is about a year old now, and it is always bubbling happiness.
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