Processed

San Francisco Style

S tier

San Francisco-style starter is a wheat culture dominated by the partnership that made the city's bread famous—lactic acid bacteria (historically Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis) with a maltose-loving Candida or related yeast. The loaf is tangy, the crumb creamy, the crust mahogany. You can raise this ecology outside California; the name is a style, not a GPS lock. It wants regular wheat feeds, a fairly firm or moderate hydration, and enough time to build acetic as well as lactic bite. A mild white levain is not this, however proud its baker. If the bread never turns that specific sharp-cream sour, you have a good wheat starter, not a San Francisco one.