Hello,
I have been maintaining a starter for several months now, and have made several successful loaves from it. Usually I feed it 50 percent whatever whole grain flour I have and 50 percent white, and 100 percent water. It is very stable and predictable, rising and settling every 8-10 hours.
My concern now (after reading Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread) is getting the flavour I want from my starter.
For a while I fed it 50/50 light rye/AP flour mixture with great results in the final loaves. I noticed in the early stages the starter would smell yougurty and sweet and awesome, but by hour number 8 it would be more acetic acid smelling and if it ever got to 12 hours, it would also turn liquid and VERY sour. My loaves would always end up with a decent sour taste WITHOUT retarding the last rise.
The last few weeks I switched to 50/50 stone milled WW/AP flour mixture in order to accurately follow Tartine Bread's country loaf recipe. I noticed that the starter now would get stinky and sour by the 8th hour after feeding, and so I started doing my feedings more often with a higher percentage seed (15-20 percent). Even then by the 5th our after feeding the starter was stinky and sour, with out ever really smelling milky/yogurty/sweet;what I desire in my loaves.
My questions are:
Is it the type of WW flour I am using?
Is it easier to get the young starter aromas I am looking for with rye flour?
How do you decrease acetic acid build up and encourage lactic?
What feeding schedules/ formulas have you folks followed to get you the flavours you want?
Any help is appreciated!