Just realized my tap water was killing my sourdough starter for 6 months

I kept trying to get a bubbly starter going using water straight from my kitchen faucet. After 6 months of flat, lifeless dough I finally asked a baker friend about it. She told me the chlorine in city water can kill the good bacteria. Switched to filtered water and got a vigorous rise in just 4 days. Has anyone else had their tap water mess with fermentation like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

mark_chen624d ago

Bro you're just looking for an excuse, millions of people bake killer sourdough with regular tap water, your starter was probably just weak or you were feeding it wrong.

hannah_west394d ago

Look, I gotta disagree a little. I'm on city water in Denver and some months it's fine and other months my starter acts like it's hungover for a week straight. The chlorine levels fluctuate seasonally here, and leaving water out overnight doesn't always fix it. Not saying everyone has that problem, but acting like water can't be an issue is just ignoring how different municipal treatments work.

eva_moore4d agoOG Member

@mark_chen62 I killed two starters before I figured out I was the problem, not the water.

shane_bell4d ago

...and honestly that kind of applies to everything in life, not just baking. People love to blame the stuff around them before they look in the mirror. I've seen it with grilling, with fixing cars, even with video games. It's way easier to say the flour is bad or the water is weird than to admit your feeding schedule is off or you're killing your starter with neglect. Once you get past that pride part, things usually click.