Hi everyone,

I’m about 2 weeks into my journey in getting my starter to become active. For the past few days, the starter has been doubling in volume after I feed it each day and it’s the consistency of a pancake batter. According to The Bread Bible, it will be active once it triples in volume. My goal is to turn the active starter into a stiff starter and to not use it for baking until it fully matures in a few weeks.
My question is this:  Once the starter triples in volume, do I immediately turn it into a stiff starter before refrigerating it and feeding it every 2-3 days for about 3 weeks, or do I discard half of the active, pancake batter textured starter, feed it the 60g bread flour and 60g water, let it almost double in volume at 75-80 degrees, THEN turn it into a stiff starter and let it mature for the 3 weeks before using?
Any help is appreciated

Thanks

Congratulations, I see success!!!

Once it has tripled in volume, I would immediately turn it into stiff starter, let sit at room temp for 1 hour, then refrigerate and do the once a week stiff starter feeding.

Thank you so much, hectorwong, for your quick response!
I have read a lot of your input concerning sourdoughs in this forum, and I’m glad I received your advice.