Finally caught why my sourdough starter kept dying after day 5

I've been trying to make sourdough for about three weeks now and my starter kept going flat by the fifth day every time. My aunt who bakes for a living watched me do it last Saturday and noticed I was using tap water from our filtered fridge. Turns out the carbon filter removes the minerals the yeast needs to stay active. She had me switch to bottled spring water and now my starter is actually bubbling and doubling in size after 8 hours. Has anyone else run into this with filtered water ruining their fermentation?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindab4914d ago

Gonna push back on that "filtered water ruins fermentation" thing. I've been using filtered fridge water for years with my starter and it thrives just fine, so it might be your specific filter or something else in the process. Could be the temp of your kitchen or the flour you're using making the difference more than the water.

victor_adams13d ago

Fridge filters usually pull out chlorine, not the minerals yeast needs.