Hi Barb, I've been trying to make a starter for the first time, today was only day 3, but when I checked it this morning, it was absolutely chock full of bubbles and had thickened up to an almost Angel Delight consistency and so initially I was really happy, as I believe that meant it was already really active and on its way to success.
However, then I noticed that the surface and some streaks up the side of the jar, had taken on a pinkish/ brown hue, which concerned me a little, but thought I'd leave it a bit longer to see what happened. Skip forward to this afternoon and a couple of pink spots had appeared on the surface, which I'm fairly confident was a bad thing, indicating that it had gone bad and so I've thrown it away and have sterilised the jar and lid.
Unfortunately, the only flour that I could find to create my starter with was organic buckwheat flour, because there's a huge shortage of flour at the moment, (as I'm sure you're aware). I know that isn't the most ideal, but I hoped that it would do the trick. However, I'm wondering if the flour choice, (or lack thereof), might have been the cause of it going bad and so before I try again, I wanted to ask if I should even bother trying with buckwheat and if so, how do I stop this from happening again?
Also, the starter had a fairly strong vinegar smell to it that wasn't present yesterday. Is that normal or would that be related to it going bad?
Obviously it's quite disappointing that it went bad when it seemed to be so active, so I want to do all I can to avoid this happening again.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

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