Sourdough Starter That Never Really Started

I am more than willing to admit defeat on this one. I have never met a loaf of bread I didn't love or couldn't make except sourdough. I fell into the belief that I could make my own delicious tangy sourdough bread by simply starting a starter. Let me just tell you right now they lied.

I added the recipes required amount of flour, water, and yeast following it to a T, because after all baking is a science.

At first things looked really promising. It started to bubble and it started to have the faint aroma of tangy yeast.

I fed it, and it grew in size then doubled in volume. I thought hey this is easy!

It looked amazing all bubbly and thick and it smelled amazing!

I went the distance, I fed it, talked to it really thought I had done well raising it...my kids were jealous about how much attention this starter was getting. My kids figured they would have done better in life if I had loved them as much as I loved this starter.

I finally made a loaf of bread from my starter and thought it was really good. It wasn't very sourdoughy (should be a word), but I thought that maybe the flavors would develop more as the starter aged.

Sadly it wasn't meant to be...starter died, the cause I assure you is quite unknown. I fed it after making bread with it and within 48 hours it had died.

What I want to know is what did I do wrong?! I mean I had a nice temperature controlled kitchen, clean sterile environment. What in the heck did I do wrong! Women came across the great plains in covered wagons pulled by oxen they suffered from famine, disease, arrows aimed with deadly intent, but by god they managed to get the sourdough starter from Missouri to Oregon in tact and ready to make bread for the evening meal. I grudginly admit defeat and I am not even mad about it there are plenty of fantastic bakeries in town I will enjoy purchasing my sourdough bread from one of them...for now.