I am not so sure I did this right, maybe someone can spot a problem, if
there is one. I usually just take a small amount of starter, a tablespoon or
so, add enough flour and water to get what I need all at once, and let it go
till its active. So now I try the incremental doubling steps,
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/ca...galCarlos.html that Charles
pointed me to, and my dough seems to take longer to rise, like twice as
long.

Heres what I did:

1/8 cup starter (Carls)

Added 1/8 cup flour and 1/8 cup water and let get fully active

Added 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup water and let get fully active

Added 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water and let get fully active

Added 1 cup flour and 1 cup water and let get fully active.

By fully active I mean lots of bubbles, doubled in volume, domed and a
little frothy, no hooch.

This gave me about two cups of what I assumed to be good active starter,
what I normally use to make four loaves of bread. From there I did
everything else my normal way, I wieghed all my ingredients, mixed and
kneaded as usual, then my bulk rise seemed to take longer than usual, which
surprised me as my kitchen is now getting a little warmer. After dividing
and shaping and putting in my rising bowls, I know the final rise took at
least twice as long as usual. I havent cut into the bread yet but it looks
normal, the only other difference I noticed was the starter had a really
yummy smell, where Carls usually smells a little bland.

Am I doing this "building" of the starter right?

hutchndi (puzzled again)