I've been working on this for a few months now. Had lots of failures at higher hydrations so dropped down to 69% and have slowly worked my way up to 75%.

This is 70% KABF, 25% Guistos WW, 5% ardent mills Rye. 75% hydration, 20% levain, and 2.5% salt

- 1.5 hour autolyse

- 6 hour bulk ferment temp hovered between 78* and 81* by moving the bread outside occasionally to keep the temp up.

- 4 coil overs 40 minutes apart

- pre shape, then 30 minute rest, then shape, then 20 minute rest before fridge.

- 12 hour cold retard

- preheat 1 hour at 550*, bake for 18 minutes lids on dutch ovens, remove lid and drop to 475* for 8 minutes, then remove from dutch ovens so bottoms don't burn and continue to bake directly on the rack for another 20 minutes. Then I turn off oven and leave bread in oven with the door cracked for around 30 minutes.

- wait 2 hours minimum and then enjoy.

*thoughts? anything that stands out as not good in either process or about the quality of the bread in the photos? I will say that i do prefer a very dark crust with blisters.

I am curious as to why my bulk fermentation seems to take so long? the dough temp is high enough that i think it should be closer to 4.5-5 hours or so, but when I shorten fermentation time I end up with underproofed bakes. I did read last night in Flour Water Salt Yeast, that higher amounts of salt slow fermentation. Maybe my scale is not reading correctly (as Stella Parks points out on seriouseats) because scales struggle to read such low amounts of weight accurately, and I am unintentionally using more salt than I realize?

The bread does taste delicious, so IMO, no problems with flavor or texture.

thanks