I started a levain culture today

[Major Nikon]

It's been at least a couple of years since I've made bread from natural yeast. I've been missing it.

This morning I mixed equal parts(by weight) whole wheat flour and warm water. I let it set for an hour, covered it, and stored it in a warm place. Each day I will throw away most of it and replenish the flour and water. Hopefully by next weekend I'll be making bread the old fashion way.

[Lucinda]

1. Awesome!

I've been feeling the fresh bread call too. Maybe next week!

[Major Nikon]

2. It's alive!

It's been 24 hours since the last feeding and my levain has doubled in size, which is a sure sign that it's alive and working. There are plenty of bubbles and it smells a bit like beer, which are all good things. I'll feed it for a couple more days and let it mature a bit before I try to make bread with it.

[Callalily]

3. Although I bake bread often

I've never started my own levain. Now I'm curious about the change in taste/flavor. Is it significant?

[Major Nikon]

4. It can be pretty much as significant as you want

I prefer not to call levain sourdough because most people associate that with San Francisco style bread that often has a strong distinctive taste that tents to be quite acidic. If you've ever had really good pain au levain in France, it's considerably different with a lot more subtle and complex flavors. If you want the San Francisco style sourdough, you simply retain more of your starter when you feed the culture, or you don't feed it as often. If you want a less acidic taste, you throw away all but a small amount of the culture each day and do daily feedings. You also have many options on how you ferment and proof your dough. It's also possible to combine levain with commercial yeast during the ferment stage when you are making your dough (never add commercial yeast to your levain culture). So there's lots of ways to do it. The taste and texture of the final product reflects the baker's methods and preferences.

If you want to know how to get started, I can give you more specific instructions.