Over the past few years I've experimented with cultivating several local "wild" yeasts. I do this because every San Francisco starter I get usually gets taken-over by local yeasts within a few months.
Recently I have two distinctly different local yeasts I have been working with and what is fascinating is to see how they each have different qualities.
Yeast #1 (above) has a great rise. The yeast reacts well to its environment and is able to produce an amazing amount of carbon dioxide (CO) that is captured in the gluten structure and causes wonderful bubbles in the crumb of the bread. Unfortunately just like commercial yeast which you can buy in the supermarket (sometimes called "instant" yeast) this variety has very little taste. The bread tastes ok (it is home made) but it does not taste distinctly sour.
Yeast #2 (from last week) has a reasonable rise but there are no large bubbles when cutting into the bread. Thankfully what it lacks in rise it makes up for in taste. The sourdough taste is amazing and really makes a distinct impression on whoever is lucky enough to be eating it.
So what do I do next? Well I'm going to try bread made with BOTH yeasts to see if I can get the best of both worlds... I'll post my results here.
Enjoy some bread,
-Matt
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