This is so informative! I've made some of those mistakes, but my starter has a pretty sour taste. There is no mistaking it! My bread not always brown, though. I have a double oven. The loaves would not brown in the larger convection oven. I had placed a rectangular pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven, as suggested in a bread making book I have. The second time I made some, I took the pizza stone out. I still used the convection oven, and it still failed to brown. The third time was the charm. I baked them in the smaller upper oven, which has no convection. I did not use the pizza stone. I'm curious as to why my previous tries produced pale, although baked, loaves.

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