The Bread Code – Make Your Own Sourdough

Afaik the bacteria and yeasts required are part of the flour used. When I prepared my sourdough I had it covered all the time which worked just fine.

No need to use whole grain flour, too. I use the rougher type of rye flour (1150 in Germany) which is fine.

Also temperature influences the balance between yeasts and bacteria. Lower temperatures suppress the yeasts in the dough in favor of the bacteria. I prefer preparing my sourdough with higher temperature half a day (22°C) and lower temperatures the second half (around 15°C if possible). Naturally taste differs in summer compared to winter because these temperatures change between those for the places I can use.

In my experience the sourdough can be stored like described but I wouldn't recommend 4 weeks without feeding. If the dough starts to starve it gets an acetonic smell. Latest then a refeed should happen. I keep the starter normally for a week in the fridge. In summer at least I feed one time in between as starter. I suspect that the starter taken from the fresh dough is already more 'exhausted' due to the higher temperatures.

In the novel Sourdough by Robin Sloan, a woman leaves her job programming robots to nurture a mystical sourdough starter. https://www.robinsloan.com/books/sourdough/

Thanks for sharing - appreciated. I have been going on with baking for multiple years now and I find it really relaxing next to my engineering job. I have already opened up a PR with my latest findings. But I am still experimenting more until I am comfortable with sharing another full year of learnings.