Slow Starter

I thought I had this all figured out, but lately my starter has been a little sluggish to start. Originally, I had been using the practice of discarding half of my starter and refreshing it with 4 oz. (by weight) of white bread flour and 4 oz. of water (by weight or volume, they are the same for water). My recipes call for 4 oz. of starter, so I figured, "Why throw out half? Just add 2 oz. of flour and 2 oz. of water to get the extra 4 oz. that my recipe needs."

Well, it seems that my starter is not so refreshed with that method. I decided to try an experiment. The week-old starter (since the last refresh and bread baking) that I had in my fridge was about 8 oz. I divided that into two containers of 4 oz. each. To one, I added 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water. (The left container in the picture.) To the other, I added 2 oz. of flour and 2 oz. of water. The arrows are the levels at the beginning of the maturing process. The level in the left container is a bit obscured by starter that was stuck to the sides.

I set them out to grow for about 8 hours. Not much had happened by then.

I left them for another 12 hours.

It's not so clear from these views, but the container on the left has grown some. So has the second container, but not nearly as much. Opening the containers shows that the 4+4 refresh (left) is much more active than the 2+2 (right).

It appears the refresh needs a higher ratio of new ingredients to the old stuff. I might still be able to get away with a 2+2 refresh, but I might need to start with a smaller quantity of starter.

I've been having some disappointing results with my bread loaves, so I'm not going to try that experiment right away. I want to have a good loaf of bread.