Okay so I've done quite a bit of learning during the course of this thread, and one of the primary things I've learned, which has taken some time to assimilate, is that there are different kinds of yeast, and in general they can be described as either "wild" or "sourdough" and "commercial".
Tonight I spent some time looking at YouTube videos regarding sourdough starter yeasts, and did not find any that focus on commercial yeast, which given my aversion to the sourness of sourdough, may make my little project harder than it would otherwise be. (However as a side note I have also learned that there are varying degrees of sourness in "sourdough" bread, and that my last experience may be been with a particularly sour bread, and that I might be okay with sourdough as a general class, however as mentioned before this is all about my wife and what she likes).
There are a bunch of YouTube videos discussing starter yeasts and they are exactly as I imagined them; bowls of brown glop. They take half out and use it, and "feed" the starter by adding more flour and water back in. However they are on baking schedules on the scale of once a week and I am baking once every 1 1/2 days.
And also, one video mentioned something already mentioned in the thread, which is that the starter should be kept in the refrigerator, but again they were baking once a week. Another thing to think about is what impact the amount of starter has on flavor. Example if I add 1/2 c. of starter to my 4 2/3 c. recipe, how does that flavor compare to if I use 1 c. of starter and reduce my flour by a full cup?
Working out the details before executing some experiments. I should start my starter yeast sometime tomorrow.
