50% hydration

bobku

My 50% hydrated starter has been looking great.I will be baking with it for the first time tonight. Its's growing about 3-4 times it size in 12 hours. I want to see if this will have a more sour flavor. I already retard dough overnight to develop flavor just want to see how a 50% starter will effect it. The starter itself really doesn't smell sour or even have a sour taste to it, even though It's growing great. From what I've read what seems like a mild starter might actually make a more sour dough. The only question I have is after keeping lt in the refridge overnight to slow things down a bit it, there was a sort of crusty layer on top, I scraped it off and discarded it as I had to discard some anyway to feed it. Could I have just mixed it into the rest if the starter when I fed it ?  Also any thoughts on using 50% starter to develop flavor?

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DVTO2 2012 February 23

I am new to this but my understanding is that starter needs time for the bacteria to develop the sour taste - this may not happen with fast starters.  Also, some starters are just less sour than others.  If you read the descriptioons of the various cultures at Sourdough International you can see some are much more sour than others. 

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