Greg Horne wrote:
> Well, I have produced another batch and it too is not sour. I am getting
...
> I seemed to get a more lively sponge at room temperature.
>
> Suggestions please. ...
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>

Hi Greg,

'Don't use a sponge' is the best suggestion. Use about 15 - 20% flour
in your starter to main dough flour this is about 3/4 cup of starter to
4 cups of flour. And try the 81F temp again. Make sure your starter is
fresh, don't ferment your starter for much longer than the peak. All
the big boys will tell you to ferment your dough not the starter. It's
good advice. Keep the temp the same and play around with the timing.
Careful not to over ferment the dough or you'll get no colour. Change
only one thing each bake. Take care with temps they affect the timing
quite a lot more than your intuition tells you.

Check out Dicky's instructions.doc. He also suggests a good way to
build the starter. Search his doc and give it some time. You'll make
great bread in no time. Forget all you've read previously. There's so
much crap around it's not even funny. As a new baker you've no way to
sift out the good from the bad. I suggest looking at Dicky's and Mike
Avery's sites and get good consistent results then if you still want to
go back and try the sponge thing you've got some good results to
compare it to. I've been going even further recently as I'm too busy to
do even an 8 hour fermentation. I go for 24 hours using an even smaller
amount of starter. Works well for my schedule.

Jim