Jon:
Recently I have had great success with my sourdough starter:
Every Saturday I take 8 oz (by weight), add 4 oz filtered room temp
water, mix it in and add 4 oz all purpose flour and mix until no
lumps are apparent. I let it sit out on the counter until it looks a
little bubbly. I can use some at this point but always put it into
the refrigerator until the next feeding. I stir the starter before
removing any from the glass container for bread making. All purpose
flour seems fine since after a week the starter degrades the protiens
into a soup even if I use KA bread flour. I usually use 3 oz of the
starter in my 1.5 lb breads and bake 2-3 per week.
The starter is 100% hydration making it easy to figure in the ingredients.
It never has the brown grey alcohol separation.
It always smells like champagne.
Hope this helps.
Lloyd