Does starter feeding ratio affect the final bread?
Yes, a lot. A 1:1:1 feed keeps the starter acidic and bacteria-heavy, which carries over into a sourer, slacker dough. With 1:5:5 or 1:10:10 the yeast gets a fresh start and your bread rises better with a milder flavor.
Answered by Hendrik, The Bread Code
From the book
Some people use a 1:1:1 ratio to refresh the starter. This would be one part of the old starter (10 g for instance), 1 part of flour, and one part of water. I think this is utter rubbish. As mentioned your starter is a miniature dough. You would never opt for a 1:1:1 ratio to make dough. You might use a maximum of 20 % starter to make dough. That’s why I advocate using a 1:5:5 ratio or a 1:10:10 ratio depending on how ripe your starter is. As I almost always use a stiffer sourdough starter due to its enhanced yeast fermentation advantages (see Section 4.4 (Stiff starter) ) my ratio is never 1:5:5. My ratio would be 1:5:2.5 (1 part old starter, 5 parts flour, 2.5 parts water). If it is very warm where you live you could opt for the aforementioned 1:10:5 or 1:20:10. This way you slow down the ripening of your starter. You can also use this trick to make starter feeding work with your schedule. If your starter is typically ready in 6 hours but today you need it ready later, simply increase how much flour/water you feed your starter. These are all values that you need to experiment with on your own. Every starter is unique and might behave slightly differently.
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