THIS was a part I did wrong many times, many years ago when I first made my starter from scratch. All recipes call for a "pancake batter" consistency. I don't know exactly which consistency are they suggesting (because pancake batter can be very thick or very thin), but you want THICK batter! Think natural peanut butter thick. It should not resemble a ball of dough, but it should be closer to consistency to bread dough than to a liquid! If the starter will be too liquid, it will go through food too fast and it will always end up too acidic. So when in doubt, make it thicker.