TBBA Basic Sourdough - Flour Comparison

Now that I have made a few decent loaves of SD in a row using Reinhart's Basic Sourdough formula, I have been eager to experiment.  However, I thought I'd start simply by doing a white flour comparison so things wouldn't get too out of hand for a beginner like me!  I doubled the recipe to make four loaves and used my usual KAF Organic AP for two and Shipton Mill Traditional Organic All Purpose, which I picked up during our trip to England in June, for the other two loaves.  I used exactly the same procedures for all of the loaves, even down to the amount of water.  They all came out tasting very good, though the Shipton Mill flour definitely soaked up more water and had a tighter crumb.  It also produced a milder tasting, slightly sweeter loaf.

My makeshift batard rising couche: jars of peanut butter supported by rolled up towels and covered by a disposable plastic tablecloth draped over cooling racks.  Here, one loaf is covered and one isn't.

KAF AP on the left and the ever so slightly smaller Shipton Mill AP on the right.  Not much difference on the outside!

KAF AP crumb on the left and Shipton Mill AP crumb on the right.  I'm not a great photographer (to say the least!) but I think you can see the larger holes of the KAF loaf.

I don't know if anyone else here at TFL has had a lot of experience with Shipton Mill flour, but I got it since it is what Richard Bertinet uses... and we were in England anyway... and I wanted to see the mill...  If I lived in England within say, 50 miles or so of Shipton Mill, I'd probably make the trip to buy their flour.  However, since I live in the USA I wouldn't say it's worth trying to special order or anything.

Summer