Rye Starter from Bread Flour Starter Questions
I have a couple questions.
I took 1/2 teaspoon of starter from my white bread flour sourdough starter--4 years established now--and threw it in another clean crock. I then added equal weights of Hodgson's Mill Rye Flour and water to the crock and stirred it up. It doubled after about 15 hours. I then replaced 1/2 of the starter with fresh water and rye flour. I plan on doing this a few more times then throw it in the fridge like I do with my bread flour starter.
Hamelman said he believes rye breads he bakes using a rye starter as a base seems to produce better loaves than using white flour starter with that loaf; so this is why I am making this rye starter--since I want to get into baking healthy whole rye breads and pumpernickel. He said--roughly from memory--the more the yeast and bacteria are acclimated to thier environment (rye vs wheat) they more healthy they will be making a better loaf.
Is it okay to do what I've done by starting it with a tiny amount of white flour yeast and bacteria? I figure after refreshing the rye starter several times it will start to keep yeast and bacteria that are more suited for that environment (i.e. rye vs wheat environment)--mutations or whatever it is that produces the changes or perhaps yeast already in the Hodgson Mill rye grain.
Or should I just make a fresh rye starter from scratch and go through the days of putrid smells?--like I did back when I made this white starter I have with rye.
If a sourdough culture I buy from San Francisco mail order can eventually localize to the yeast here in Oklahoma and kill off the san francisco yeast, then I figure the same for the oklahoma white starter vs. oklahoma rye starter--correct me if I'm wrong please.
Another question I have is, can I store this rye starter in my fridge safely like I do my white starter? Or does the rye starter prefer 60-70F?
Is 100% hydration good for rye starter or should I go with 125%? (I'll read Hamelman's book more--he probalby goes through this; just got the book.)
EDIT: Btw, I just smelled this now doubled rye starter (after about 3 hours or so) and it smells soooo good. It has a very pleasant sweeet smell.