Neglected starter for 2 days, now it smells like Apple cider vinegar
Hello all! I'm new to this forum and hope to be posting more here in the future!~ I created my starter in October and it's been great until recently.... I've been keeping it on the counter at room temp as I was baking mini loaves everyday. I took a 2 day break and forgot to feed it during this time. When I got back to it, it had a tiny amount of hooch and a VERY strong apple cider vinegar smell. I fed it a 1:1:1 ratio everyday for a week and the smell never went away. So I decided to take a different approach by changing the ratio. I switched it to a 1:2:1 (starter, flour, water.) which seems to be helping a tiny amount. This isn't my ideal ratio though as I prefer a liquid starter. Am I approaching this issue correctly? How should I properly go about solving this issue? Is my starter permanently messed up...?
I should note that besides the smell the starter has been able to produce some fine loaves. I also want to note that I use King Arthur's wheat and bread flour and split it 50/50 for feedings. :)
I'd suggest feeding it with a higher ratio, like 1:3:3. The exact values aren't important. I've had starters that smelled very fruity that produced bread that tasted just like ones I made from mild-smelling starter, so I'm not surprised that you get good loaves. Over time and more feedings expect the extra aroma to fade away.
Just pop the starter into the fridge if you need to leave it longer between feedings.
TomP