Hi Everyone
I decided to take a crack at making sourdough but my starter ended up dying and I'm not sure why. Here's what happened... I started with
500g filter water
250g bread flour
250g whole wheat flour
Mixed it all up and left it sit covered on my counter for 48 hours or so at room temperature (roughly 75 degrees). Everything looked perfect at the 48 hour mark, the starter had roughly doubled in size, there were small bubbles on the surface and there was a slight acidic/alcohol aroma. I measured out half the starter and threw it out. I feed the starter with 250g water, 125g bread flour and 125g whole wheat flour, mixed it all in and left it again at room temperature. Within a few hours the starter was very active again and almost doubled in size but I left it alone. At about the 24 hour mark after feeding, I checked and the starter had lost all of its volume was flat, very liquid and smelled strongly of acid/alcohol. Not knowing what to do, I discarded half and re-feed. 24 hours later... nothing, no growth, no bubbles, and very liquid. The starter also had seemed to have some what separated, so I threw it all out.
Im not sure what happened here, can anyone shed some light so I know what I did wrong (aside from not naming my starter.. maybe loneliness killed it)?
Thanks!