For over a week now I’ve baked so much bread. I am after a more sour tangy taste. I’m new to bread baking and mus say I am pretty darn happy with the crust, the crumb, chewiness, looks, smell but not the taste. The bread tastes fine and we all eat it. It’s delicious. But I WANT IT MORE TANGY. I’ve kept in oven to bulk ferment for hours, I’ve also tried on a heating pad as well. I’ve put the loaves in the fridge to retard overnight. One loaf I left to retard 12 hours and another 24. I’ve left my starter at a warmer temperatures. I’ve followed the recipes which call for a more sour bread and followed instructions to a T leaving it at certain temps and then moving to fridge to retard. I’m using a scale. I weigh. My starter is 100% hydration. I’m gonna change hydration next. I read a stiffer starter will make more sour bread. I’ve read nearly all the sites that come up when searching on how to adjust sourness but still no luck. If I leave my starter in the oven and feed sporadically instead of every twelve hours I notice a very strong sour smell, but only if I let it go hungry. it nearly burns your nose when you sniff. It’s just all overwhelming. It smells so sour when I leave it like that. I’ve tried recipes with more starter and less starter for more sour. Nothing is giving me what I want. I’m close to just giving up and I’ve enjoyed this journey so much. It’s just getting very frustrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Any tips or tricks? I’m just so aggravated with all this bread making and not able to get anything but a very mild taste of sour if that. Attached are some of the breads I’ve made recently. Thank you all for listening to me rant. I even made Trevors Sourdough Pan Bread and no sour. The loaf was delicious but I want a sour loaf of bread. My first loaf was so tangy we wasn’t sure we even liked it. Starting off and I can’t remember what recipe, what steps or anything. All I do remember is the starter was kept in the oven ALWAYS- the dough was needed a lot. It was retarded in the fridge for about 12 hours. I’ve duplicated those steps time and time again and still no where near the sourness of that first loaf. Someone please tell this old man where to start? What should I do? How can I get there without going insane lol?
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/43974/bran-soaker-water-sprouted-multigrain-super-sour-white-sourdough
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/37061/making-starter-more-sour
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/49800/looking-more-sour-sd-recipe
These should start to point you in the right direction.
How can I get there without going insane - well, since you've got the bread bug - sanity is just a small spot in the rear view mirror. But, it just sounds like your starter is predominantly yeast, not enough lab (lactic acid producing bacteria). It was tangy at first as there was a higher proportion of the labs in relation to the yeast. All normal for a young starter. What you can try is keeping the starter at a lower temp (like 50F) for a week or so and see if it gets you the sour your looking for. The lower temps should reduce yeast production and may get a better balance between the 2. Good luck - and don't let it get to ya - its just bread.
In my experience, a sure fire way of getting more acid is to have a very low levain inoculation, like 2% of the total flour. The bulk in room temperature takes a long time but the end result is very tangy.
Pops, you did not mention acetic acid versus lactic acid in the above. It sounds to me like you are looking for more acetic flavor as opposed to lactic flavor.
Are you already informed of the difference, and how to achieve one versus the other, and heteroformative versus homoformative? If not, I'll provide some links (in addition to the good links already mentioned above.)
If you have indeed already explored the acetic-vs-lactic, heteroformative-vs-homoformative route, then I have a different suggestion.
HOMOFERMENTATIVE BACTERIA
Homofermentative bacteria prefer environments that are wet and moderately warm, perhaps 70-95F. Their chief by-product during fermentation is lactic acid which is fairly mild in it's sourness compared to the sharper acids contained in lemon juice or vinegar. Homofermentative bacteria can survive in somewhat drier conditions and within other temperature ranges but they do better in the warmer range.
HETEROFERMENTATIVE BACTERIA
Heterofermentative Bacteria do better in somewhat drier and cooler environments, they prefer temperatures of about 50-65F. They produce both lactic acid and acetic acid as by-products as well as a small amount of CO2. Acetic acid is also found commonly in vinegar and it’s flavor is much sharper that that of lactic acid. Heterofermmentative bacteria can survive in some numbers as different temperatures than specified and in wetter environments, but drier and cooler situations favor their reproduction and their ability to ferment bread dough.
Daniel T. DiMuzio, Bread Baking.
I went through the same thing and found that my loaves come out more sour the longer i retard them in the fridge. I started with one day in the fridge and added one day at a time until I now keep then in the fridge for 4 days and my family likes the sourness.
Oh, I should mention that I let it ferment on the counter for no less than 12 hours and as long as 18 hours, I'm still experimenting with that but it doesn't seem to make much difference in my environment.