Weird starter
Hi everyone,
I'm having an issue with my starter and - silly me - didn't take a pic of the issue so I'll just go on and try to describe it.
I made my starter in my NYC kitchen, and fed it daily for about a year with organic all purpose flour. It was a very happy little starter and it worked great. Last summer, however, I dehydrated it as we were about to move to Europe. We live in Italy now and a few weeks ago i made a first attempt on waking up my starter, it didn't go well, after 5 days or so of feeding there was no movement at all. I started over with some more flakes and this time I got more response. I'm currently feeding the state with organic 00 flour, however the volume will double at best (in NYC it would easily triple n volume), and for the past few days I get this weird little bit of foam on top of the bubbly starter, but only on one side of the jar. Also when making bread I feel like the starter hasn't much strength at all, I can't manage to get my breads as well raised as they used to be, even though I use the same recipes. At first i thought it might be the room temperature, but our place is actually well heated. Maybe bacterial contamination? Should I just toss the starter and try another batch? Has anyone had similar issues?
I really miss my breads and hope to be able to get back at some serious baking soon! Many thanks for your help!!