Hi Theda, you could replace the levain with ripe starter if you'd like to, just combine the weight of the flour and water in the levain and use that much total ripe starter by weight when you're making your dough. Using discard in your dough as you've been doing is a great idea to add flavor and use up the discard you already have on hand. Since you're adding ripe discard, you're welcome to experiment with lowering the amount of yeast called for in the dough down to 1/4 teaspoon. If you find that works, you could go even smaller if you wanted to give that a whirl.

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