Is there hope?
I've lovingly tended to and fed my starter twice a day for a week now, keeping it on the countertop. It always doubled within 4-6 hours after feeding, and bubbled nicely. Yesterday evening I used Breadtopia's sourdough no knead recipe. I've made no knead recipes with yeast with success a number of times. So this morning, when I checked, I hoped to see the same kind of rise as with the yeast loaves. No such luck. Just sitting there like a brick, hardly risen at all. There are still 5 hours left to go, but I can't imagine much happening in that time.
If it's still small in 5 hours, should I even bother to continue? It would be such a waste to throw away all that dough, but I don't want to eat a brick. Well, my chickens would, I guess, if I soaked it long enough. What could have gone wrong? Starter still too young?