Rye Sour Question

I have been keeping a rye sour for a while now. My procedure is simple.

The sour, at 100% hydration, is kept  in the fridge. When I'm ready to expand it for use, I move it to the counter to warm up. When it is visibly bubbling, I pour 100g into the mixing bowl. The remainder, I feed with 50g each whole rye flour and water. In about two hours it will be bubbling, and I put it back in the fridge until I need it again.

My sour seems to be very  strong and healthy. Yesterday's build was typical. The mother, 100g, was expanded to 620g in two builds; first to 275g using a 50/50 mix of whole rye and whole wheat flours, then to 620g with AP flour. Both builds at 100% hydration. The starter was at a near rolling boil (hyperbole alert!) level of activity seven hours from start.

gary

My 100% rye starter (grinding my own) at 100% hydration is also very strong.  When I feed it, I first leave it out for one hour, feed, leave out for another hour then refrigerate, once a week feed. 

When baking I leave it out until room temp, then feed with peaking occuring in five hours (in oven with light on, which is 78° in my oven).   I then like to give it a second feed for another 5 hours.  Thus after 10 hours I build from 50 gr or so to 15-16% of the total ingredients.

Next I add enough water/flour to bring to about 50% of the recipe and let it go 5-8 hours, then the final ingredients.  Stretch and fold for another 2-3 hours then preshape, rest, final shape and then overnight rise in fridge/baskets.  Take out of fridge for the hour it takes to preheat the oven, bake staight away. 

This is similiar to the 1-2-3 method: total ingredients divided by 6 with 16.6% first build, 50% second and then 100% (search box has several posts on 1-2-3).  This longer build and final 8 hour cold rise also promotes more of a sour tang which is my personal preference.

The resulting activity is enough to give a great jump start to the final rise.  By comparison when using yeast, my loaves may double in one hour compared to say 90 minutes or so when using only natural leavening- not the several hours or more that can be the case if a weak starter or too fast of a build, or say all white flour.  I attribute this rather fast activity to using several build stages that keep those little critters happy...

Your results to date appear to be going very well, but of course you have a fabulous mentor in DS...

Refrigerate your rye starter between feedings, if your schedule requires. And you do stir the dry flour into the sour before the next water/rye flour feeding.

Note that you could also slow down the fermentation to fit your work schedule by seeding your sour with a smaller proportion of ripe sour. I usually do this when I'm building up my sour. So, mix 2 tablespoons ripe rye sour, 3/4 cup rye flour and 1/2 cup water. Sprinkle another 1/4 cup of rye flour over the mixture and cover the bowl. This should not be over-ripe 12-16 hours later (depending on room temperature).

When I am building up my sour and need, say 750 g, I'll go through 3 feedings at 12 hour (more or less) intervals. I start with a very small amount of ripe sour and double it with each feeding. I don't throw out any starter this way, and I think I get better flavor and vigor. (Actually, it's the starter that gets better flavor and vigor, not the baker.)

David