I'm confused about Hamelman's levain method in Bread. In the formulas, he routinely has you mix up the final levain from an active starter of 20% weight (5% for rye), fermenting for 12-16 hours at 75f. ( I think this is the "Detmolder one-stage" method?)
But in his technical instructions on p148 , Hamelman instructs to build the levain over two and three elaborations, starting with a small amount and growing by a factor of two or three at a time until you get the final levain.
Weird thing is none of his formulas ( except perhaps the miche) use elaborations! Granted, the one-stage method has worked well for me, even using an old chef sitting in the fridge as the 20%.
So which is it? And I'm wondering how the rising and sourness would be affected between the two methods?