Newbie help
I have been trawling through the starter pages on this site trying to find information on how to resurrect my starter. So much fantastic and helpful information. thanks.
So...basically I started my first starter about 6 days ago with whole wheat flour and tap water. At day 4 I had a layer of hooch on top of the starter and a slightly alcoholic fruity smell. I have continued to feed it small amounts of flour and water - 1:1 by volume every afternoon. The smell has changed from pleasant to 'pain thinners'. It has been very warm here in western australia so I am thinking it has been chewing through the food very quickly and has not been fed enough - I havent been discarding the starter before feeding...so thats probably the main problem
So now that I am read up (thanks to this site) my plan of action is 1. purchase some scales then 2. take some of this starter - 10g or so and add 30g water and 50g plain white unbleached flour to make a stiffer starter and continue this at every feeding. I also think it best to switch from whole flour to plain white flour to achieve a bit of microbial balance?
Any other suggestions would be really welcomed
Thanks