Why isn't my sourdough starter active yet after 3 weeks?

Hi all. I am from India. I am new in this SourDough Preparation. I am on my 20 day. But my sourdough is not raising in size. I can see only small bubbles . And there is a dry crust form on top of starter everyday. Environment Temperature is 27-32 degree Celsius

My starter is three weeks old. Smells great no funky colors or smells. But won't rise. nothing i do will cause it to rise. I tried the float test, and it just sinks to the bottom. Should i just throw it away? Seems a shame, can I do anything with it, like maybe add it to pizza dough that has other yeast?

It's BEAUTIFUL! Don't worry about the shape; it's not at all unusual for them to be a bit "out of round". I'm going to email you my phone # so we can talk. Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice is the bomb.

I think your strategy was excellent, and I'm so glad you have a good, active starter. Bear in mind that it will mature over time, so if loaves you make 2, 3, 4 weeks from now begin to look better and better, it's not your imagination - they really are. We'd love to see photos! Congratulations on persevering!

Oh, heck no, it's fine at your room temp. My house gets cold overnight, too. The starter is better, in fact, to be on the cool side. First, whole wheat flour: I use WWF on the first day only. It brings along many lovely wild yeast spores that you really don't need to add beyond the first day. Ideally, you want your yeasts to be at the same point of maturity, and if you're constantly introducing new ones which need a higher rate of hydration, well, I suspect you get the point. Too, the starches in WWF are much less readily accessible to yeast as a food source - good for your body's metabolism, not good for yeast. Next, yes, it does matter how much you feed the starter in relation to its quantity. Ideally, you want to double the quantity of starter each time you feed it. That doesn't mean that you need to measure the amount of starter down to the last ounce; close enough is close enough. So when I mention ratios of flour to water, yes, they are relative to the amount of starter you have. So, to pull some numbers out of thin air, say you have about 32 ounces (4 liquid cups) of starter after 3 days. You're going to discard half of it, leaving you with 16 ounces, right? So for the day 4 and day 5 feedings, you'll give it 9.6 ounces (be reasonable and call it 9.5 ounces) of flour, or 60% of 16, and 6.4 (again, call it a reasonable 6.5 ounces) ounces of 80 degree water. Translate ounces into grams and you're there!

People typically underfeed starters, so this is definitely a new one; I agree that you're feeding it too often. It's good that you're getting a sour flavor from it, but that's likely due to bacterial growth (acetobacillus and lactobacillus), not yeast growth, which is what you'll need in order to raise bread. The reason it's only showing subtle signs of life is that the food supply far outweighs the amount of yeast available to consume it. And I'm guessing that you're periodically disposing of part of it (usually half), which further reduces the yeast population. Even in the early days of growing a starter, it should only be fed every 24 hours and kept at room temperature for the first 5 days. I'm pretty sure you can resuscitate yours. First, pour out half of it. Next, feed it flour and water in a ratio of 40% flour to 60% water. Increased hydration (the water should be about 80 degrees) will give the wild yeasts a good growth medium. Keep it at room temperature. Feed it at that ratio for 3 days, once a day. By the 4th day, you should begin seeing much more activity. The surface should be actively bubbly, and the starter should have a consistency that is both somewhat dense and stringy with glutinous strands. On the 4th day, again discard half of the starter. Pour it into something (an empty can, a plastic bag) that you can toss into the garbage because you don't want these heavy starches and gluten strands wandering through your plumbing. For the 4th and 5th days, feed it flour and water in a ratio of 60% flour to 40% water. The decreased amount of hydration and increased food supply will give the yeast a balance that permits it to be fed every 3-4 days from now until the end of time. On the 6th day (not the 7th) transfer your starter to the refrigerator and allow it to rest for 24 hours before using it to build a loaf of bread. Oh, and don't feed it any more whole wheat flour.

What's the consistency? It can be sour & have tiny bubbles but still be dead. You want something quite thick, not runny like the consistency of pancake batter.

Twice a day is really not necessary for feeding. And starters keep well in the fridge (for a twice weekly feeding) after they're going, so the temp of your kitchen is unlikely to be the problem.

Not knowing quite what the recipe is, I'd say to start again. I've made a starters with organic grapes, flour and water and you should be well underway after about a week.

Others might know better but I'd keep feeding it. I had a similar experience several years ago using Nancy Silverton's method. I gave up and tossed the whole thing, but wish I had given it more of a chance after all that work!