Will wrote:
> Sam wrote:
>
>> ... they are put to sleep to be re-awakened.
>>
>
> This is the part that I no longer subscribe to... that cold acts as a
> benign preservative, that the culture simple goes dornant. I think the
> cold skews it to yeasts and less to L.B.'s. In my case, I had
> something like 6 starters: rye, red wheat, white wheat, one from King
> Arthur, one from Kenneth, one from kamut even. Even with decent
> rotation, I was using each every third week.
>
> It was you who suggested that I focus on one starter and develop it's
> potential instead of micky-mousing with old ones. You were right. It
> was good advice.
>
>
That's not the point as far as I am concerned. You think there is
selection of one SD critter over another based on temperature when you
store them in a fridge and/or "something else" may take over.

please look at those lines:

http://samartha.net/SD/docs/DW-post1-4n.html#061
http://samartha.net/SD/docs/DW-post1-4n.html#066

both are growth rates for a researched LB and yeast.

the LB has 0 growth rate at 4C - that's 40 F - I don't expect to grow
something below that temperature either
the yeas has 0 growth rate at 8 C - that's 48 F - I don't expect to grow
something below that temperature either

The fridge temperatures which have come up here are 35 F - below the 0
growth temperatures above.

I don't think you can have a selection/promotion of organisms by
temperature when nothing grows.

Your other point that "something else" grows in the fridge:

Why would "something else" grow at low temperature when "nothing else"
grows at decent growth temperatures outside the fridge and lots of germs
added with flour?
The deterrents - as I wrote before - don't just go away by cooling .

There may be a cooling period, where a starter put in the fridge starts
cooling down and some change of proportions may happen - who knows.

The effect of this will be factored in into your result when you do the
same routine over and over again - putting a ready starter into the
fridge, take it out, run it through the same stages and put a sample back.

What you are seeing in different behavior/results with your starter is
probably because you use a different routine and maybe have a more vital
starter with this.

In your initial answer post, you stated:
> The various critter
> populations adjust. The stuff that adapts to cold, acidic conditions
> multiplies and the stuff that likes heat fades away.
I still think that nothing much changes nor anything "fading" away in a
fridge storage of up to 2 month. And should there be a minor change
while cooling down - that's eliminated by factoring it into the routine.
If the germ counts are reduced by longer storage, it just will take
longer to get them back.

As long as both methods make good bread, who cares?

Sam