Hooch - I am a little unsure.

Hi people,

I am day 4 in my old school flour and water starter. I have read about hooch in starters and have the understanding that the early appearance of hooch signifies a week starter.

Every day I find a good 2 cm of hooch in my jar and it varies between transparent to brown in colour. In the morning I stir this back into the mixture and in the evening I spoon most out before feeding just under half of the original mixture with some fresh flour/water.

There is definately activity in my starter as I have noticed areas of the mixture clotting and generally there are always bubbles.

So the question is should I be worrying about this hooch and should I stir this back into the mixture in the morning?

I guess the amount produced will potentially decrease as the yeast colonies become stronger, but as the mixture is still moist without this extra liquid I am not sure if mixing it back in will be of benefit.

Any advice welcome.