I've been baking San Joaquin Sourdough with great results. I use a baking stone, transferring via parchment. Oven is at 550, turned lower after the formed loaves are loaded. I had a wonderful ear on my first batch and was so excited that I tried again. My slashes weren't as nice because I didn't get the same beautiful ears. Something to work on for consistency, I guess. Anyhow, one thing consistently wrong with my loaves is the pale bottoms. The crust is a beautiful dark gold, crusty and chewy, but the bottoms are always pale. Any clues how to remedy this?