Stiff vs. Liquid--What's really the difference?
I ask this question because I had trouble converting my stiff starter to liquid recently. I have a very active stiff starter that I refresh at 50% (per Dan Leader's formula). It is very durable and always doubles within 8-12 hours. I followed the advice I found on here to use 24g of my stiff starter plus 143g water/100 g flour to readjust the hydration to 130%. It never rose even slightly, barely bubbled, and water appeared to separate and float on the top of the mixture. I tried refreshing it for a few days at 130%, but same results day after day. ANYWAY, I got to wondering if I wouldn't be better off just using my reliable stiff starter for all formulas calling for a liquid starter and just adjusting the hydration in the final dough. My question is....
Is there a difference in the character of the finished bread when you use liquid starter as opposed to stiff starter? In other words, aside from the inconvenience of having to re-calculate all formulas calling for a liquid starter, is there any legitimate difference in the resulting bread?
Thanks,
Mike