I have never had much success with baking 100% whole wheat bread and if I couldn’t do it with yeast I wasn’t sure about my chances with sourdough starter, but I was willing to give it a go!   So with a bit of trepidation Iordered some sourdough starter to try making bread without yeast.   The second day I had my starter it started to bubble nicely, but I didn’t put it in the fridge because I wanted to make a bigger supply.   So, I kept adding more fresh ground wheat and water for the next two days, but now my starter wasn’t bubbling anymore and it had a kind of ‘cheesey’ smell to it.   There was also a thin layer of water that would form on top of the wheat mixture,even after I stirred it down.   I wondered if maybe my kitchen was too cold because my thermostat read in the mid 70′s.   So, I gave up on it yesterday and didn’t add more flour and water, planning to toss it and order some fresh starter to begin again.   However, today it looks different and is starting to bubble again.   It also doesn’t have a cheesy smell anymore….more of a grainy smell, if that makes sense.   Does anyone think I should still try to use this starter?   Maybe I was just handling it too much before, or my cold kitchen was slowing down the process???   I would hate to throw it out if it’s still good, but I also don’t want to take a chance of getting sick from bad starter, if that’s possible?   I don’t know if baking it would kill any ‘bad’ bacteria.

TIA for your input!