Meet Mr. Butter
So.... it's been a ride. Admittedly I have not been the most attentive, there has been a lot of trial and error, I may have actually killed it once (possibly twice). This may be a testament to stubbornness and futility but here's where we are at:
Started back in December, mistake #1. We don't use the heater so the house was cold (~50°f) and after the initial false rise it was flat & I mean absolutely zero activity for a good 10 days. At which point I decided to put him in the oven with the light on pretty much 24/7, mistake #2.
During this entire time I was feeding 1:1:1 by weight every day.
I saw a little activity after a few hours in the oven so I thought it was a good plan but by the next day it was completely flat and it was quite warm in the oven. but I kept him in there for a couple more days just to see. I don't have a thermometer in there so idk the actual temp, mistake #3 and the first probable death of Mr. Butter.
I made a cozy and moved him back to the counter. Queue another several weeks of nothing. Eventually I forgot about him for a day and actually got some activity and a yeast smell. so i kept up the 48hr feeds getting bubbles but no actual rise for weeks.
Finally when the weather started warming up it started rising but would smell very strongly of acetone. I changed to 10g starter, 50g water, 50g flour every 24 hrs. It'll smell great, like sourdough should, about an hour after I feed it but 10 hours in the SOB will be straight acetone again.
WTF do I dooooo???? is it time to just scrap it?
Note:
There has never been any discoloration or mold. Nor has there been any off or foul smell other than acetone.