Success at last

[Hakurei Reimu]

Sourdough is one of the truly great inventions in life. Tastes good, and it's quite hard to use it to kill people. Quite the opposite.

[GreatLife]

Tried it your way. This loaf is also all white flour. The first two were 20% whole wheat flour.

Yep - that is how they serve it in San Francisco.  And, IMO, a beautiful loaf of bread - in addition to tasting great.

I have gone all the way up to 1/2 whole wheat flour... but honestly I prefer the taste of all purpose flour for this particular usage.  It is ground finer - so there are more surfaces for the yeast and bacteria to grow on.

One final hint?  The sour taste comes from a certain type of bacteria.  This bacteria grows fastest in colder temperatures - around 40 to 50 degrees.  When you do your second rise you want to allow this type of bacterial growth to happen.  So I put the dough in the fridge overnight - at least 6 hours and more likely 8 - and it will produce a nice sour taste.  You can go up to 24 hours in the fridge - but you will get a very sour and puffy loaf.  The yeast will still do their thing - but it takes them a lot longer in cold temperatures.  So the longer you leave the dough in the refrigerator - the more sour the final loaf and the larger the "fart" bubbles. 

Take it out the next morning and allow to sit in a warm place for twenty minutes before putting it in the oven.

Once you get the hang of it, you can have your very own "taste" based on how long you let it proof.

[GreatLife]

Sourdough is one of the truly great inventions in life. Tastes good, and it's quite hard to use it to kill people. Quite the opposite.

I totally agree - you can just leave it on the counter or wrapped lightly in paper, and it is good for much longer than "wonder bread" from the store.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

You can also use the old prison method to get the sponge going..just a chunk of old bread. I knew a bunch of guys who had done time back in the 60s and 70s.. They didn't make bread, but the chunk of bread was used to ferment alcohol which is the same basic premise. With bread you're fermenting the flour and sour dough gets its flavor from the fermentation process. The longer you can keep your sponge going the better the flavor should be.  Over the course of a few years it's going to get a real nice tangy flavor.
I love sour dough, but the crust is too hard for me now that I have no teeth, but hey, that's what a good beef or chicken stew is for..
Something else you might try is potatoes. Potato bread is really tender, but it takes a bit of getting used to because it tends to be kind of sticky when you kneed it. If you're doing it by hand instead of a machine.. It's nice to have a dough hook and all that, but it just removes some of the pleasure of working it by hand.
I started making bread at an early age,  probably around 12 or so so I've got some experience with it, but better late than never.  Mix with a good solid wood spoon, not some flimsy piece of crap off the shelf from Walmart and plenty of muscle.. mix as much flour in as your arms can handle and still have a moist ball of dough.  Too wet and everything sticks..too dry and it just falls apart. It may help to buy some gluten to add to your mixture. Gluten gives it the elasticity you need and no..gluten won't kill you, but even if it does you're going to die anyway so you might as well enjoy it while you can. .
Happy baking Pappy..