Could sunlight affect the starter making it more or less sour? Would it make a difference if it were to be in a blackout environment?
In some of the processes for making alcohol, I have often heard that darkness is a key to good fermentation. Could it affect the starter making it more sour? Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you.
I have often wondered the same thing myself. I don't normally put a starter in a dark place but it is out of direct sunlight and not near a direct source of heat. I noticed that the Black Death starter lost sourness the more I used it and think that this is because I changed the type of flour I was using, suggesting that the sourness is caused more by the varieties of 'yeastie beasties' :-) in the flour than sunlight/no sunlight. I suppose the way to test the hypothesis would be to put the same starter into two jars - one in a dark place and one in the sunlight and see if it made any difference. It's an interesting question to which I'm sure there is an answer.