Pro tip: I was killing my sourdough starter with tap water for years.

I always just used water straight from the faucet in my starter, thinking the chlorine was fine. The moment I realized was when I tried to revive my great-aunt's 50-year-old starter from a dried flake she gave me, and it just would not activate. A baker in Portland told me to try filtered water, and within two days it was bubbling like crazy. Has anyone else had a specific ingredient or step that was quietly ruining a family recipe?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena_rivera632mo ago

Yeah, that tap water thing got me too. I started leaving a jug of water out overnight to let the chlorine gas off, and my starter totally perked up. What do you do now, use a filter?

evanr791mo ago

That's a good point about chloramine, I had no idea it was in some municipal water until I started digging into this whole mess. I switched to a basic Brita pitcher and my starter went from barely alive to bubbling over and forcing me to bake three loaves in one weekend. Really should have figured that out before I wasted six months wondering why my great-grandma's rye starter just sat there looking sad.

dylan4132mo ago

Honestly, chlorine can be a problem, but some tap water has chloramine which doesn't evaporate.

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