ray324•3d ago

I finally fixed my sourdough starter issue after 6 weeks of guesswork

My starter kept turning out watery and smelling like nail polish remover. I tried feeding it different flours, changing the water temp, even bought a fancy scale. Turns out my tap water had too much chlorine and switching to filtered fixed it in 3 days. Has anyone else had a simple fix that took way too long to figure out?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliotjenkins3d ago

@miles581 have you actually checked if your tap water has chlorine in it though? Not all water is the same and some places add way more than others. The nail polish smell is a clear sign of overhydration and chemical issues, so it makes sense the chlorine was throwing things off. What kind of water do you use for yours?

miles5813d ago

I dunno, is a little chlorine really that big of a deal for some bread starter? lol. I mean, people have been making sourdough for centuries with way worse water than tap. Seems like you might've just been overthinking the whole thing. Six weeks is a long time to be messing with something that's basically just flour and water. Maybe your starter just needed more time to mature instead of you changing everything around. Glad it worked out for you but I think a lot of people get too precious about this stuff.