Extending fermentation with less yeast and more time

Toast

I've read somewhere that you can calculate extended rise time with the following:

 

amount of yeast for original recipe * rise time for original recipe = amount of new yeast * rise time for extended modified recipe

So for grams and minutes it might be something like:

5 * 60 =  new yeast * 120     where a doubling of rise time would use half the yeast at 2.5 gr.

 

My question concerns which rise time? I imagine it is bulk fermentation but does that mean that after shaping proof time would be same as original?

How about when a starter, biga, poolish, or equivalent is involved? Does that yeast get modified too?

thx

Dan

 

...I don't think it's linear.  I recently reduced yeast in a recipe by 1/3 and saw no real change.  The next day I cut it by half and saw bulk rise times increase from 45 minutes to 60 minutes. 

FF

Doubling time for yeast is a function of temperature (hydration, sugar content, salt, acid, and a lot more). At any given temperature the doubling time will be relatively constant for a given yeast.

A fair rule of thumb would be two hours to double at 80F. So if you halve your yeast you need about 2 hours to get back to where you started the other dough and another hour to get to the same point as one hour on the original - so you need to jump from one hour to three hours - two will be underproofed. But that is only an estimate. Reality will likely be different.