Hi William, the tang in sourdough bread is affected by many factors during the sourdough bread making process, so you're quite right that the autolyse may have an impact on flavor, however unless the autolyse includes the starter or preferment, I doubt much flavor development would occur, and once you add the starter or preferment, this is going to have an impact on the duration and effectiveness of the autolyse. In other words, in terms of sourdough flavor development I would concentrate more on the preferment and dough phase of development, and focus on the autolyse as a tool for improved dough qualities. One great way to increase the tang in sourdough bread is to substitute 10-15% of the white flour in the dough portion of the recipe with whole rye flour or whole wheat flour. Rye tends to develop more sour flavor than whole wheat flour, but may not allow for quite as open of a crumb structure. I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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