Rye sour fermentation: how long?
Hi,
still venturing in the marvellous world of rye bread (but not only bread, I'm eating right now a cake made with only rye flour that came out particularly good) I found various fermentation times for the production sourdough, generally ranging from 8 to 24 hours! and with various hydratations ranging from 100% to 200%.
My question is: what can I expect from a longer fermentation time? A higher sourness, a major stability of the final dough or maybe more?
Is there a way to understand if it's too much? Maybe a too sour smell? Unfortunately my ph-meter is still on its way...
What if the sourdough begins to collapse before the time? Is it time to prepare the final dough or should I refresh it?
How does the hydratation of the sourdough affect the taste of the final bread? Does a wetter sour result in a gentler taste?
Generally I don't like very sour bread: sour is fine as long as it doesn't begin to taste too much acetic. Moreover I always add a small portion of hot soaker to enrich the taste with some sweetness (lately 5-10% of the flour with triple of its weight of boiling water).
SD percentage to the final dough is another parameter that varies a lot: from 11% of Mini's favorite to 50% of Andy's Rossisky bread. I guess that even in this case applies the same principle "the more SD the tastier".
Thanks in advance and especially to Andy and Mini that helped me a lot!