I love sour bread, but sometimes I want to bake a loaf without that
sour flavor. And yet, I hate bland bread, and I love the idea of
using natural leavening just because it's fun and interesting. I want
to get my culture to give my bread complex, interesting flavors --
like those found in fermented products like beer or wine -- without
yielding much if any sourness.

From what I've read (which is quite a bit at this point), the key to
this is long, slow, cold rises. I understand that at colder
temperatures, the lactobacilli produce more acetic acid (vinegar) than
lactic acid, and while the acetic acid smells and tastes sour, it
mostly evaporates while the bread is in the oven, and therefore does
not produce a sour taste in the final product.

So what else are those lactobacilli and yeasts producing that yields
the complex flavor I read about in bread baking books and taste in
fine bakery breads? What is the best way to maintain the culture and
ferment the dough in order to strengthen these qualities? It seems to
me that if the culture itself were kept cold at all times, going
immediately back into the refrigerator after feeding, that this would
select for cold-tolerant organisms. But then, there may be organisms
which only reproduce at higher temperatures but which will still
produce good flavors at low temperatures, and perhaps I need to
maintain a warm starter in order to keep these guys around?

Does it matter what hydration I maintain my starter at? I'm currently
using 100% (equal weights of water and flour), which is probably a bit
drier than most, but the French seem to prefer the old dough method,
using a mostly solid starter. Does this make French breads less sour
and more complex in flavor, or is it more dependent on rising times
and temperatures?

When it comes to actually fermenting the dough, most procedures I've
seen include at least some warm (at least room temperature) rising
time. Is this absolutely necessary? Could I not rise it entirely in
the refrigerator and put it in the oven cold? (I just attempted this
the other day with bad results, but I may simply not have allowed it
long enough to rise, or not used enough starter in the dough.) Any
other suggestions on the best mix of cold/warm rising?

I should also mention that I bake almost exclusively whole-grain
breads, for both flavor and health. (I do love white bread, but I
firmly believe it will send me to an early grave.) I use King Arthur
whole red wheat and also whole "white" wheat (the latter to mellow the
flavor a bit), sometimes with small percentages (15% or so) of whole
rye flour. Unless I'm baking for a special event or by special
request, I don't use any white flour at all.

It may be the fact that I use whole grains that prevents me from
getting these subtle, complex flavors -- they might be there, but
masked by the stronger flavors of the whole grain.

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

Randall Nortman