How to get a High Rising Whole Wheat Bread with lots of Lactic Acid

Hi there, very new on scene of sourdough.

I arrived here because I heard tell that sourdough is a more healthful digestible style of bread making, specifically due to the lactic acid. I've pretty much just been "winging it" after tinkering with no knead bread, with good results. But now I'd like to get more serious and create a signature loaf. I tend to use a good deal of whole wheat in a dough, sometimes freshly milled. Maybe 75%. I've played with both thick and thin starters, mine being originally Alaskan (probably contaminated my Oregonian flour?) I haven't decided on what my tastes are, I like mild and sour. If anyone has had milk kefir before, that is a lovely taste! It's like creamy and milky sweet while still having intricate tang. Maybe what I'm looking for in taste is the best of both worlds, sweet and sour.

So tell me, any suggestions on scoring my target loaf of a nice high riser with a maximum of lactic acid? I don't really know what I'm doing!

and you can combine both in one bread. I would make 2 different starters and combine them in one bread. Grind 400 g of WW and sift out the 15% bran ending up with 60 g of bran and 340 g of 85% extraction flour. Take 10 g of your starter and combine it with the 60 g of WW bran and 60 g of water. Leave it at 88- 90 F unti it doubles and then refrigerate it. The next day take 10 g of you starter and combine it with 60 g of the 85% extraction flour and 60 g of water and let it sit at 72 F - room temperature. Once it is within 2 hours of doubling then take out the bran levain and start the autolyse with the remaining 280 g of 80% extraction wheat and 200 g of bread flour and 340 g of water and sprinkle 12 g of salt on top. Mix in the salt and then add the 2 levains to the mix. Then make bread the way you normally do. The bran levain will be sour the 85% extraction one will be much more sweet. This will make one fine bread at about 66% whole wheat and 78% hydration that is a bit more sour than sweet. Happy baking

It might take a while for me to get back to you, but I will definitely be posting photos. I haven't even really been weighing my ingredients, just been mixing by hand and going by "feel" lol.

One question about milling (which I am just beginning to do, hand crank :S) - Do you have a photo of fineness so I can match your flour? And does anyone have suggestions on the most efficient way to mill with a hand crank?

And just to clarify why I'm saying "high rising", I am still learning to judge when a dough is perfectly proofed. I have noticed that proofing on the porch outside (50 deg?) helps me to stay on top of it because it seems to proof slower. If I do that with your recipie Dabrown, will that interfere with the sweet/sour balance?

As far as baking, I'm just rolling the NYT no knead method, but if anyone has tips on encouraging spring, do tell.

need to hit the heat at 85% proof - not 100% proof in order to get proper bloom and spring. Just set your mill to the finest setting it has - and no worries. To give you an idea,m A cup of WW flour weighs about 130 g, a cup of bread flour about 125 g and a cup of water weighs 238 g. I think if you do about 2 minutes of regular kneading before continuing with your normal no knead process the bread will turn out better. Good luck! Don't worry about the temperature outside. It will work fine for fermenting a no Knead bread using this recipe. You need to get an electronic scale when they go on sale in order to follow recipes more closely and accurately. Happy baking

Fortunately I do have a good scale, and it's interesting you say that about kneading 2 minutes. That's what I did with my very first loaf and it was pretty nice!