I’m extremely new to baking breads and just created my first two starters 8 days ago. I used plain flour and water for one, which made a great loaf and smelled fine until yesterday, but now smells like old beer.
However for my second starter, I tried a method I found on Twitter that used the traditional equal parts water and flour but added dried fruit. I used dried prunes and while it’s a beautiful ivory white with no spots and decent bubbles, it smells sort of cheesy (almost like Parmesan or nutritional yeast). It’s not an unpleasant smell, but it’s also not changing or going away and I’m not sure if I should dump it or keep it to use as a yeast substitute for non-sourdough recipes.
I was thinking to start a thread asking people about the various starter smells they have come across. Vinegar is common. Paint thinner also. Often just generally sour or like alcohol. Cheese is common. Recently mine has been smelling like feet.
Good to know! I’ve been feeding them every 12 hours again and the beer smell is going away. Savory cheese smell is still strong as ever!