I gave some starter for a buddy this weekend, and was compiling a brief (for me) FAQ for it.  Since there are a bunch of folks here that bake with free range bugs (http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1206737/wild-yeast/p1), I thought I would toss this up for folks just getting started.

For those of you that know what you're doing and see f%$##ups in the notes below, please feel free to correct.

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Keeping your starter going is a very simple process, which will likely be less work than reading this note.

Short version

• It is your pet, give it a name – Like a dog from the shelter, you can either keep its original name (And Goo Too, for the one I gave away this weekend), or rename it as it suits you.  Spawn3's stub of it (from the same gob of starter) is Vlad, short for Vladimir Gluten
• At a bare minimum, feed it once a week and fridge it to keep it going – If you aren’t baking much, you can pull it out on Sat AM and feed it, let it get fully frisky, and then pop it back in the fridge for a week.  I have gone more than a week, but then it requires a little more rejuvenation
• Make waffles – As you feed it, you will be discarding ~100g of starter every week.  You can dump it in the trash, but you can make waffles (or pancakes) instead…and you should - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018025-sourdough-pancake-or-waffle-batter 
• Use it - Bread, pizza dough and naan are all better with free range bugs
  
• Share it  - Starting a new starter from scratch is a PITA.  Give a buddy a head start with a blob to start with
  

Feeding

• Dump out all but ~20g (it doesn’t need to be too precise)
• Stir in 50g of AP and 50g room temp FILTERED water (chlorine in tap water is no bueno for bugs… including the bugs you want).  It will look like paste, and you will doubt your ways
• Let it sit on your counter until it is rockin’ – You can tell because it will have lots of bubble and be at its max volume.  On our counter, that’s about 12 hours – You will now have what recipes call “fed starter”, and this is what you want to start with to make a levain/poolish for bread recipes.  Now you can either throw it back in the fridge for a week, or repeat the cycle daily until you are overcome with bread or run out of AP

Nuances with starter (and breads)

• How fast your starter gets rockin’, and how fast your breads proof is a function of a bunch of stuff, and with practice, you can manipulate the variables to hurry up or slow down the process
• Variables
• Friskiness of your bugs – This is a function of whether you are using a rockin’, fed starter, or if you let it go too long and it’s a little dead.  Unfrisky bugs will still work, but they need a little more time to roll out of bet, take a shower, and get a cup of coffee before they can kick ass
• How many bugs – More starter => faster rise
• Temp of ingredients – Warmer (to a point) => faster rise.  When making bread, I add 95F water to room temp flour (because Ken Forkish told me to).  If you use cold starter (which you can do in a pinch) or cold water or cold flour (some crazy people freeze their flour), everything goes slower.  Also, different steps of the rise can be retarded by throwing the dough in the fridge.  That slows the bugs down (and makes the dough “more complex”, I am told).  You can also race by using a proofing drawer, setting in the sun, putting by the stove, etc.  Not ideal, but will work in a pinch
• Enrichment of dough – Enriched doughs, like the pain au bacon that I have going right now, will rise faster than a straight dough (flour, water, salt, yeast).  Most recipes will advise you of this, but it is fair warning, since I expect this crowd puts bacon in everything.
• Once you think about those variables, you can see how different recipes/cookbooks get to the same end point.  The Forkish approach is to use a very small amount of starter and let it rise for a long time (to enhance flavor).  Others will have overnight fridge rises and such trying to get to the same end point
• Commercial yeasts are cheaty… but some recipes were designed with them (see “bread, Wonder”) and can be made better with sourdough, but won’t necessarily be the same, or what you are shooting for