I have been experimenting with some basic sourdough bread and have a few
questions for the experts. I have been following the SF sourdough recipe on
Samartha's website. I have also been using his rye starter. Here are some
observations and questions.

The starter is very sour to the taste. I like that and figure it should
make sour bread.

I first used the basic recipe 50% starter 100% Flour, 50 % water to make the
sponge (25 g, 50 g, 25 g). I fermented this at about 80 deg for 7 hours and
it puffed up nicely, with lots of holes in the start that I could see
through he plastic container. I generally refrigerate this overnight due to
time constraints. In the morning I continue with 20% starter, 100% flour,
60% water, 2% salt (100g, 500g, 300g, 10g). This I knead and let ferment
for about 9 hours at around 85 deg.

Here I have tried several things.
1) I often make round loaves in a basket with the dough rising in a towel
(for about 9 hours). Then I bake, maybe at 475 for 5 min (with water in a
pan for steam) and then turn down to 450 for another 20-30 min. This gives
nice bread, but not too sour. Not great on the holes

2) Round loaf baked at 400 with steam for 40-50 minutes. Fine loaf too.
Disappointing holes here too.

I just finished a loaf with more starter in the sponge (100% starter, 100%
flour, 50% water). Let sponge rise 7 hours. Fridge. Make dough, let rise
4-5 hours at 80-85 deg then Fridge for night. Next day I let it warm up and
rise for another 4-5 hours in a plastic bowl. It raised nicely. Then I
"gently" pealed it out of the bowl and onto some parchment and baked at 475
with steam for 5 min and 450 for 30 min. I had great oven spring, nice
holes. The texture was very chewy, nice crust. It might have been
underdone, the temp of the inside of the loaf was about 205 deg when I took
it out. It was certainly not overdone.

Questions:
1) I am trying to get nice holes. It seems to me it is better to bake at a
lower temp for longer to get better oven spring. Lower temp allows more
time for heat conduction to middle of loaf before curst forms and fixes the
size of the loaf. Comments?

2) trying to get more sour flavor. I think using more starter should help
since it is sour. I also think longer fermentation should help since the
sponge is pretty sour to the taste before I make the dough. Letting things
sit longer should allow appropriate growth.

3) is there a limit to the amount of start I can use? Why are the recipes
generally limited to maybe 50% starter and 100% flour? I could probably use
75 % starter 100% flour and no extra water to get a good sponge.

Thanks,

Dave