Peter Reinhart's Sourdough Starter

I think my previous sourdough was a failure. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but starting at about day four or five it developed what looked like white strands on the top connecting  little white balls, almost like spider eggs. It also started smelling pretty bad and never really developed the nice, yeasty aroma I kept reading about.  I did a ton of research and came across the site BreadTopia. This site is amazing if you are truly interested in bread baking. Eric has tons of videos, including a series on starting, maintaining, freezing, reviving, and drying your sourdough starter.

The method he uses for making a starter was taken from Peter Reinhart, the author of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, and Crust and Crumb. This method utilizes pineapple juice instead of purified water, though you can use water if desired. The reason for the pineapple juice is that the acidity in the juice keeps the pH balance where it's supposed to be so the good bacteria wins and the bad bacteria doesn't take over. I'm hoping this will take care of the problem I experienced with the first starter.

I did try to revive the first starter, but didn't have any luck. Even with aerating it several times over two days, it didn't grow and started developing white balls on the top. Since it also started smelling, I threw it out.

Now for my third attempt. I combined 3 1/2 tablespoons of flour and 1/4 cup of pineapple juice in a mason jar and covered it loosely with plastic wrap. This is now supposed to sit on my counter for approximately 48 hours. During that time I need to aerate it 2-3 times per day. Bubbles may appear, but it is also normal to see absolutely no activity.

Day 1 right after mixing.