starter has very little activity

A starter will go through a very active phase initially as the lactobacillus grow first and they are pretty active little buggers! Then the yeast starts catching up, the lactos decrease and the yeast are the slower to develop dough lifters. You need to keep going to build their numbers and you will start seeing more activity.

I know you are following directions but I always start and maintain my starters in a lot smaller amounts. Use the same ratio of starter/flour/water but you can make it a tinier amount so you aren't discarding so much flour. When you have a nicely active starter (bubbles up and consistently rises after a feed) then you can build it into a larger amount.

If you are seeing hootch formation, that means your little guys are starving and starting to live off of themselves rather than the flour. Do an additional feeding. I used to bring it to work (another reason to have a small amount) and feed it during the day until I got a good,balanced starter going.

I'll echo clazar123's comments.  Sourdough requires patience.  It will take you 2 weeks to get the starter really active and about a month to have a mature starter.  Don't give up and don't start all over, that just delays things.  I use filtered water to keep from having the chlorine hurting the little critters.  I also use a scale to measure the ingredients.  You should do whatever works for you.

Ford

Not knowing the proportions of water and flour in your starter, I wonder if it is a fairly thin consistency?  If it is, it may be allowing the bubbles to escape.

If that is the case, add enough flour to achieve a consistency that is somewhere in the thick batter to soft dough continuum.  Then it will have enough body to trap the bubbles and expand as it develops.

Paul

I feed mine AP (all purpose) simply because it is cheap and available. I know there are people that use a WW (whole wheat) starter to make WW bread and an AP starter to make white bread but I use the same starter,regardless. The only time I think it really matters is when you are making a rye sour for a high percentage rye bread. There are all kinds of enzyme actions going on there.

I have found that if I switch back and forth between different flours for feedings, my culture is more likely to turn nasty and cheesy smelling. Some people feed their starter a flour mix right from the get-go that has a mix of AP,WW and a little rye (70%AP,20%WW,10%rye). I did that successfully for a while but then had to manage making sure I had enough of the flour mix on hand. So much easier to just dip into the AP bin. If you ever want to convert it to a specific starter base, just take some of the starter and start feeding it whatever flour you want to convert to for a week or so but keep the original starter as is.

Generally, the more liquid the starter, the faster the little yeasties eat up the food supply. They are more likely to encounter food if they are in a liquid state than solid state. As you go towards the solid (like dough) state, it usually can be longer between feedings. All that is temperature dependent,also. They sleep when it is cooler and get very active when warm. 80-82F is ideal for yeast.

By the way-3 years ago, I didn't know ANY of this. This is a great site to learn from and there are wonderful people here that love to help. I am always grateful for Floyd and all the Loafers!.

Bake delicious fun!

You may want to do a couple things. Make sure you are getting a thicker batter-like consistency. Actually, the best way to make sure you are getting it right is to use a scale and weigh it out, at least until you are comfortable with how it should look. People use different ratios of water/flour, but generally a number close to 1:1 by weight is good. You said you are doing 1:1:1, but I don't see where you said whether that is by weight or volume. That ratio by volume would be VERY thin, like waffle batter, thinner than pancake batter. Your yeasties will starve, which sounds like what is happening, since you have hooch. Depending on how often you want to feed it, you may want to use a smaller amount of starter in the ratio for feeding, something like 4:4:1 as Flour:Water:Starter should give you a once-a-day feeding at a cool room temperature (low 70's). For warmer temps, feed a higher ratio (5:5:1 or 6:6:1 or more). For feeding twice daily, half as much flour and water in the ratio will do.

As for flour type, AP will feed your yeasties quite nicely, and cheaply, as long as white flour suits your bread recipe. Using natural, organic, WW or Rye flour is best for starting a culture, because the yeast is on the grain from the field. However, after you get some yeast activity going, switching to AP makes it cheaper, and also stops the introduction of new, maybe different and competing organisms, and gives the culture a chance to settle into what it is going to be from now on, rather than changing with every feeding.

As Ford said, you should plan on it taking a couple weeks to get really active, and a month to become somewhat mature. I wouldn't recommend trying to use it in any recipes until that maturity is there. Really active, mature starters can usually double in 8 hours or less, if you're feeding twice a day and giving them enough, but not too much to eat. I would recommend you don't attempt to store it in the fridge until it is mature at least. Also, since some yeast strains don't do well in the fridge, try splitting up your starter and putting some of it in the fridge, to see if it will survive, while keeping some active outside the fridge, for safety. You can easily do that at feeding time. Put some starter into two bowls, and feed them both, then put one in the fridge for a week, while you continue to feed the other every day. At the end of the week, you should be able to take the one out of the fridge, feed it, and watch it become active again if left at room temperature. If not, you'll be glad you kept one out.

One more thing: I highly recommend you follow clazar123's advice about keeping a smaller amount. Once again, this is much easier if you weigh your ingredients. You could probably get by with 5 grams of starter (maybe less!), with whatever ratio of flour and water works for your temperature and feeding schedule. Another benefit of this, if you switch to AP, is that it will reduce your number of organisms in the starter, leaving only the strongest ones to multiply and replenish the culture. This will help your starter to stabilize more quickly, and become mature.

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/13/raising-a-starter/

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/09/29/maintain-starter/

Both of these links are from Susan's Wild Yeast blog. They are very informative, and will help you understand a little more. Also, check out her site while you're there, for some great recipes and tips. She has a Recipe Index in a tab at the top of the page. I've used a couple of her bread recipes, and they turned out great!