Tried making sourdough with tap water instead of filtered and it actually worked better

I'd been messing with starter for 6 weeks using bottled spring water and kept getting flat loaves. Last Tuesday I ran out and just used straight Austin tap water out of desperation. My loaf rose like CRAZY and had this nice open crumb I've been chasing. Has anyone else had better luck ignoring the fancy water advice?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliviagrant17h ago

Oh wow, 6 weeks of fancy water and flat loaves? That's brutal. In my experience, I've heard some tap water has minerals that actually help yeast activity, which bottled water sometimes strips out. Your Austin water might just have that sweet spot of chlorine and minerals your starter was craving.

blake69117h ago

I ran into the same thing with my tap water in Phoenix. For three months I was buying spring water from the store because everyone online said it was better, and my starter was just sad and lifeless. Then I switched back to tap water out of laziness one weekend and suddenly it doubled in size overnight. It's like we get so caught up in what's "supposed" to be the perfect method that we forget the old school way that worked for centuries before fancy bottles existed. I notice that pattern in everything from cooking to fixing up my truck, people overthink it and lose the basic stuff that actually works. Your Austin water has that good mineral balance that's hard to fake with store bought jugs.

the_thomas13h ago

Chlorine actually kills yeast, so it's the minerals doing the work, not the chlorine part.