starters; yeast water: freshness
So I'm reading a lot about starters (mine is fine about 20 months old) and when i need to I just take it out a day or so b/f I'm making my dough and spruce it up.
Here are my questions:
(1) Can yeast water be maintained?
My husband is partial to a Hamelman recipe that calls for yeast water. It takes me 4 - 5 days to make. I've read here that you can maintain it w/o remaking it each time but for the life of me how would that work? What he likes is the complete lack of bitterness (sigh!). I've read Akiko's method and basically it does not address the issue of maintenance.
(2) What is the best way (when I'm making other loaves to minimize 'sour' (if I want to do that) other than minimizing retardation? I ask b/c I've read that if you make a levain with very recently freshened starter (over a couple of days) that will accomplish the same thing. (I ask b/c my favorite recipe is best done w an overnight retardation in the fridge)....
So say I am making 2 loaves of my favorite bread and for the overnight levain I need 60 g of starter?
Should I take out 5 g and build it up to 60 g over a day or 2?
I guess I want to know if manipulating the number of builds of my starter will keep it sort of 'fresh' and less sour.
Thanks in advance.
hester