My sourdough started hasn't yet risen! What am I doing wrong?

Question

I had started my first batch of sourdough starter a week back. Its just wheat flour and water (haven't added any pineapple juice or any other fruit juice). The first 2 days had vigorous activity and the mix stank, a lot! After 3 days the smell has changed to a slightly fruity acetony/alcoholish smell with some remnant of the previous stink. I have been feeding the starter once everyday.

Its been 6 days now and I still don't see any rise that growth of yeasts is suppose to bring with it. The past 3 days I have always observed a slight layer of clear liquid form over my starter. And every time I throw the top part and a little of the starter away to add fresh flour and water. I live in India and its always hot and humid in the day, so room temperature isn't the problem.

My starter has just had a few bubbles in it nothing vigorous like I see in the pictures online. It never rises! There's no rise and fall.

What am I doing wrong? Don't want to waste flour if its dead. Would appreciate any help.

Attaching pics in link for reference

Sourdough starter pics

Edit: Forgot to mention before. I store the starter in a pyrex bowl, with the lid on it. Its not air tight, but neither is the starter getting the kind of air that covering the bowl with a cloth would let. I store it in a dark warm place inside a cupboard.

UPDATE1: So with accurate measurements (S:W:F= 1:1:1), there was a drastic change. No hooch whatsoever, the starter seems more active, there are bubbles throughout the batter. But there's nothing vigorous. There's no rise and fall at all.

Without the overnight rise and fall, is my starter ready to be used for leavening? How can I know if the yeast population is sufficient enough for baking a loaf?

UPDATE2: The sourdough starter rose very well. 2 days was all the difference I needed. The starter tripled in size once the yeast activity was good and going. Have added the result pic in the same album linked above.

Answer 1

While feeding I take half cup measure of flour and then take the same cup measure of water and mix it in the starter.

And there is your problem to some extent. Always weigh your flour, water, starter and everything else when baking bread. Water weighs about 25% more than flour. This means you have about 25% too much water (or more).

Great bread recipes take into account humidity, temperature, ingredient weights and the fact that not everybody's measurements will be exactly the same size. Always weigh your ingredients.

So now take 4oz or 100 grams of your starter, add 4oz or 100 grams of water along with 4oz or 100 grams of flour, stir that all up and see what happens in 24 hours.

Then repeat the process again, twice a day, though you may notice great changes as soon as tomorrow. Report back as you do.

If 4oz is a bit much for your container, you can reduce it to 2oz. Making half of the flour wheat--and not just white--helps in the beginning along with a tablespoon of rye if you have it. (Yeah, I'm not picky about the tablespoon here.)

Answer 2

How exactly are you feeding the starter? Are you just adding new flour and water or are you discarding?

What I do (based on recipes I've seen) is discard 2/3 of the starter and add 1/3 of each new flour and water. So if I have 100g of starter, when I feed it, I discard 67g of it and add 33g of each flour and water.

The reason for this is that it gives the starter a lot more "food". If you start with 50g and add 50g, you've added 100% and then have 100g. If you then add 50g more, you're only adding 50% and have 150g. If you add 50g again, you've only added 33% and have 200g. Because you're adding progressively smaller amounts of food, you will get progressively less activity.

Instead if you discard 1/3 and add 2/3, you'll add 200%, and if you do it again, you'll add another 200%, etc. After a few days of this you should have a very active starter.

This does require discarding some of the starter which is why I keep it relatively small. I use 75g of starter for a loaf of bread, so with 100g I have enough for loaf and then enough to re-make the starter.

The discard can be used in other recipes such as pancakes, banana bread, etc. It is 50/50 flour and water so easy to substitute into other recipes.