11 hours ago, paulraphael said:
Sounds like Clostridium acetobutylicum. It eats starch and makes acetone. I did a quick search and found this discussion ... sounds like you're not alone, and it's not that big a deal ... that bacterium can't tolerate an acidic environment. No personal experience here, though.
Thank you. Great reference. I am well aware of Clostridium as I was an RN in a former life but not it's tendency to produce acetone in sourdough starters if given the opportunity and wrt the acid forming bacteria had also last summer been trying to make vinegar from a cider vinegar containing a mother; so acid forming bacteria might just be floating around in my kitchen still. Granted the smell of acetone was not that strong but nonetheless I knew it was there and should not have been. So perhaps the refrigerated starter is not the write off I was afraid it might be and perhaps should be taken out of its cold sleep and revived to see what I can do with it. Thanks again.
