Latest posts
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | Fermentation Has a Schedule. It’s Not Yours.
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina will tell you that the most common mistake he sees described in sourdough baking forums and comment sections is treating fermentation like a timer problem. People ask: how long should bulk fermentation take? The answer they want is a number — four hours, six hours, eight hours. The answer…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | A Country Loaf Is Harder Than It Looks. Ask the Guy Who Made Three Bricks.
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina made three inedible loaves before he made anything worth eating. He wants to be clear about this, because the sourdough baking community online tends to present a version of the craft that begins with a few awkward loaves and quickly progresses to open crumb and golden crust. His experience…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | What a Payroll Spreadsheet and a Sourdough Notebook Have in Common
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina has processed payroll for Lincoln County Schools for more than two decades. He has baked sourdough bread for five years. He will tell you, without prompting, that the two activities have more in common than most people would expect. Both run on records. Both depend on identifying patterns in…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | The People Who Get Free Bread in Lincolnton
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina bakes more bread than he can eat in a week. This is by design. He bakes most weekends, and the surplus goes to specific people — coworkers at the Lincoln County Schools central office, older neighbors from his church, and one neighbor down the road who keeps backyard hens.…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | Why Most Home Bakers Get Impatient at the Wrong Time
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina has made more overproofed loaves than underproofed ones. He is confident this is true for most home sourdough bakers, even though the internet spends far more time warning people about underproofing. The reason is simple: underproofing looks dramatic and is easy to identify, so it gets photographed and discussed.…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | Clyde Almost Died Twice. Here’s What Kept Him Going.
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina has maintained a sourdough starter for more than five years. He named the starter Clyde, after his grandfather Houser, who went by Clyde as a nickname his entire adult life. The name felt right. His grandfather was steady, reliable, and required consistent attention to keep in good shape —…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | The $30 Cooker. The $400 Dutch Oven. One of Them Makes Better Bread.
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina bakes sourdough in a cast-iron combo cooker that cost him thirty dollars. He has also borrowed a four-hundred-dollar enameled Dutch oven from his sister-in-law. He knows exactly which one makes better bread. The answer might surprise people who are waiting to buy the expensive version before they start. The…
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Brian Smith Lincolnton | He Keeps a Notebook for Every Loaf. Here’s What It Says.
Brian Smith of Lincolnton, North Carolina has logged more than 200 sourdough batches in a spiral notebook. Not a spreadsheet. Not an app. A spiral notebook — the kind you can buy at any dollar store — that sits on the kitchen counter next to his cast-iron combo cooker every weekend he bakes. The notebook…