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Hi:

My starter may be proteolitic (?) based on what I've read.  Do you all think it's possible to fix this?

My bread doesn't seem to bulk or proof properly at all, resulting in limp dough.  This is the third starter that's doing this!  Very frustrated.  I've tried using a small innoculation (as small as 5% to dough flour), and as high as 20%, and ranged temps between 65-85. With smaller innoculation and colder temps, the bakes are dense, flat, gummy.  With larger innoculations, I varied time and temp, I get dough that spreads out, has some crumb, but is not airy at all - I've been sticking to 68% hydration, 1.7% salt.  Crust is a bit pale with higher innoculations, but not always.  Flour is good flour - I've been using central milling flour ordered from their website (few on hand, the type 70 and the artisan bakers), or organic KABF.  Most of the mixing is done on low speed in a viking mixer for 5-6 minutes, medium-ish gluten development.

Starter:

100% rye starter using vitamix milled whole rye berries.  I kept it fed 1:2:2 over two weeks at 85F, and had it doubling in roughly 4 hours time.  After two weeks, I converted it to NMNF starter.

In each case, I take out a small piece, do the three-stage build of the levain at 80-85F.  It doubles, it floats. 

After several weeks in the fridge, the starter itself smells like isopropyl alcohol.  This aroma is getting to the levain a little bit. 

I really don't want to make another starter.  You all think I can fix this somehow?  I can do more tests, but the fancy flours I've got are expensive, I hate wasting them like this.

It's either this, or my water.  My tap water is a bit on the alkaline side, at 8.2pH.

Thanks for your time!

My dough seems to stop rising and the result is a rather dense crumb. I've been using the same recipe for quite some time and the last two times it just doesn't rise that much. The starter does fine. I feed it the night before and it does great. I'm using the same amount of salt. Whereas the dough used to do not much for a few hours and then start going these past two times they seemed to start fast and then stop rising. Rather than doubling and then doubling again I get maybe 50% and not much more.

I mix the flours, salt, and water in the evening, and mix in the starter the following morning. The last time I did it I put in the fridge until 10pm, and let it sit out over night (like I saw at the bredworx site). The time before I left it out for two hours and then put it in the fridge until the following morning. After it warmed up I then put in the starter. Both times I take out about 2 tsps of dough after the starter is well mixed in and put it in a graduated shot glass. The sample dough used to do nothing at first and then grow to 7tsps by the following morning. These past two times it gets to about 3 or 4 tsps before it's done.

Is my starter bad?