I’m envious! I have never gotten past the sourdough starter. I somehow always mess it up. Any advice?
Use only whole wheat flour for the first 4 days. I think the process I used went something like:
Mix equal parts (by weight) flour and water.
Leave for 24 hours.
Discard half and replace with equal parts flour and water.
Leave for 24 hours.
(By this point there's a little bit of aroma and some bubbling)
Discard half and replace
Leave for 24 hours
Discard half and replace
Leave for 24 hours
Now there should be plenty of yeast in the starter, so you have to manage it. Discard all but 50g of starter and add 200g water 160g white flour and 40g whole wheat flour.
Leave for a day and then come back to it. It should be very active and smell yeasty but not harsh. If it smells like ethanol, discard and replace all but 50g and give it another day. If it still smells harsh, reduce time between feedings. If it doesnt seem very active, give it more time between feedings.
You can store the sourdough starter in the fridge a couple hours after you feed it and it will easily keep a week without needing to be fed again.
I've also heard but never attempted that you can dry the starter out on parchment and rehydrate it later. If stored airtight it can be kept for over a year.
Hopefully that helps. If you really struggle getting it going, you can always get some from a bakery. They'll often give it away from what I hear (as long as it's just a small portion, which is all you would need).