Can someone tell me if my starter is OK
So I'm new to the sourdough world, I haven't even baked my first loaf yet. I'm just getting my starter going. After a week of starting my starter it was more than doubling in size after about six hours from feeding. I decided to feed it for a week or so more to get it good and strong. Not that I know what I'm talking about but I heard its a good idea. Now as I've gone down this road I've smelled my starter and I have smelled it sweet at times, but now its smelling vinegary. I know it should but I was watching a video and it seemed up until the point it reaches its peak after feeding it should have some sweet notes along with the vinegary side. After that the laco bacteria starts to produce more and more acid and the starter starts to smell more and more vinegary, not so sweet. So if I'm right then my starter shouldn't be smelling so vinegary at about the peak point. But it is rising well, predictably and now just about at a three times height. However I know the bacteria can also produce gas, but would it cause a three times growth in six hours? So I don't know how to gauge my starter. Is the fact its rising three times within a six hour window enough to know its a good starter or does the smell factor it?
Sounds completely normal to me, you've got yourself a good starter! What ratio do you feed? If it smells vinegary right after feeding perhaps you should feed with more flour/water.
Actually I had a question about that. I had heard that if you feed at higher ratios which I see is usually done at night to give the yeast and bacteria more food for the long night, that will cause the starter to be more sour because they have more time to create acid. But I think I saw a side by side time lapse of two starters feed with two different ratios and they rose and fell at the same time because the higher ratio starter, though it had more food its inoculation is obviously smaller. So I don't know if higher ratios produce less acid? I think you might be right though.
I don't know what time lapse you are talking about, but higher feed ratio postpones peak time - but not in direct proportion to the feed ratio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvYpp_66nZ0
I am not sure about production of acid, but higher feed ratio would dilute/buffer out the acid better - if your starter smells vinegary just after being fed it probably has lots of acid and it's not diluted sufficiently at each feed.