I've been maintaining a rye starter for the past week or so and at this point, the bubbles have gotten smaller (although they are definitely still forming). However, the starter initially was tripling and doubling in size within 12 hours... Now it's day 5 and the starter hardly doubles in size. After 12 hours, it's essentially at the same mark. Should I be concerned and feeding it more often than every 12 hours?
I had read that rye starters are very resilient and require less upkeep than say a white starter. Additionally, I'm going out of town for the next two days and I wanna stick the starter in the fridge, but I'm not sure when I should or if I should. How do I get the rye starter to rise again and when should I stick it in the fridge?
After the initial burst of activity sourdough starters can slow down and even stop. Trick is to slow down your feedings (or even skip a feed or two) to match. Have a read through this forum topic http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/52917/help-sourdough-starter%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EIf you're going away, your starter is showing activity but it's just slowed down, then I'd advise you to refrigerate and then carry on when you get back. If your starter completely stops and you need to skip a feed or two and you're only going away for two days then I'd leave it out as you'd probably need to skip some feeds anyway.
NKT,
I usually leave mine at room temperature for around 2 hours then it goes to my proofing fridge at 43F and I feed once per week,
Big Crusty