Can an overly sour starter cause loose dough even at lower hydration?
A starter that's too sour makes the dough slack fast, even at 68%. Give your fridge starter two or three daily feedings at room temperature, 1 part starter to 5 flour and 5 water, before you mix. A stiff starter pushes the balance toward yeast even more.
Answered by Hendrik, The Bread Code
From the book
In most cases something is probably off with your sourdough starter. This very often happens when the starter is still relatively young and isn’t as capable of fermenting flour. Over time your sourdough starter is going to become better and better. Keep your sourdough starter at room temperature and then apply daily feedings with a 1:5:5 ratio. This would be 1 part old starter, 5 parts flour, 5 parts water. This allows you to achieve a better balance of yeast and bacteria in your sourdough. Even better could be the use of a stiff sourdough starter. The stiff sourdough starter boosts the yeast part of your starter. This allows you to have less bacterial fermentation, resulting in a stronger gluten network toward the end of the fermentation [ 37 ]. Please also refer to the Subsection 12.4.2 where I explained more about overfermented doughs. You can also refer to Section 4.4 (Stiff starter) with more details on making a stiff sourdough starter.
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