Just came across a rather novel (to me) idea -- starting a starter in
the refrigerator. This is as opposed to starting it at room
temperature, and only once it is solidly established and stable
putting it in the refrigerator for storage purposes. The dead-simple
process is described he

http://www.parc.com/apte/bread.shtml

It makes some sense -- you would of course end up with organisms that
are adapted to refrigerator temperatures, so there would be no
concerns about your starter culture getting out of whack from being
stored in the refrigerator. Presumably, organisms which are happy
enough to ferment slowly at refrigerator temperatures would not be
offended by being asked to leaven bread at room temperature, though
they might not be quite as speedy at it as organisms adapted to higher
temperatures. He does both bulk fermentation and final proof in the
fridge, though, with the loaf going in the oven cold. (Why not, if
your starter is so adapted?)

So it all makes sense, if it actually works. Has anybody tried this?
Any thoughts? I would personally be pretty happy to keep my starter
in the fridge all the time and feed less often. (Though the author of
the above claims that his barm will double in 24 hours even in the
fridge! I wonder if that means he has to feed it daily? The page is
scarce on such details.) It would, at any rate, eliminate tedious
adjustments to recipes and timings required by seasonal variations in
room temperature.

I suspect you end up with a yeast-heavy culture, since AFAIK there are
more cold-tolerant yeast than there are cold-tolerant LAB. That would
be bad news for people who want their sourdough to produce sour bread,
but good news for those looking for more mild flavors.

I think a test is in order. I'm off to put a fresh rye paste in the
fridge and see what happens.

--
Randall