Hamelman 125% liquid levain maintenance feedings questions
I recently got a copy of Hamelman’s Bread and I am confused about the starter maintenance feedings. It seems like he doesn’t really recommend keeping a separate starter culture fed but instead that you just save 2 T of the levain build. I can’t find anywhere where he describes a daily/weekly maintenance feeding schedule for perpetuating the culture without building it up.
Question 1: The hydration of the maintenance culture. Does Hamelman actually recommend that occasional bakers maintain a 125% hydration liquid levain? He gives instructions for building the culture and building the levain to be used in a bread on pp. 421-428, but the discussion of “Sourdough Maintenance for the Occasional Baker” on pp. 432-33 confusingly describes making a build (again, not maintenance) from a 100% hydration starter. Yet neither does he explicitly recommend that occasional bakers maintain a 100% hydration starter instead of the 125% hydration starter called for in his recipes. So, what gives? 100% or 125% for home bakers that bake once a week?
Question 2: The ratio of the feedings. In the seasonal build examples for the occasional baker on p. 433 (with a 100% hydration starter), he recommends a 1:1 starter to fresh flour ratio in winter months and a 1:2.5 ratio in summer. However, in the 125% hydration liquid levain build for the Vermont Sourdough on p. 152, the ratio between “mature culture (liquid)” and fresh flour is 1:5. Does this mean that for a 125% hydration culture the ratio between mature culture and fresh flour should be 1:5, but for 100% hydration cultures as described on p. 433 it should be 1:1 or 1:2.5? Or is it just for the final build that such a low percentage of mature culture is used? What ratios should be used for the regular maintenance feedings for a once-a-week baker?
In short, what level of hydration and what ratio of starter to flour and water would be recommended for Hamelman’s recipes?