On Apr 11, 1:05 pm, "Tom" wrote:

Also, I could actually be adding
TOO MUCH starter to the recipe, hence not giving the starter enough food to
chew on.

That is a good observation. A lot of bricks begin with generous
amounts of old, acidified starter g. You want the acid load at the
very end... not at the beginning. Refreshing and expanding keeps the
acid levels low and the critter counts high.