Alright, got things fired up and did a couple sourdough French loaves. Got the culture active the last couple days and then last night I got the dough going for an overnight rise.
This morning, transferred it to the oven set on 'bread proof' (around 85 degrees), covered it with plastic wrap and let it proof for 2 hours. This warmer second rise helps develop the sourness as well as creating lift.
After that I carefully formed two French loaves and placed them onto parchment paper on a French loaf pan and covered them with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Then back into the oven to proof further.
In my experience, sourdough isn't really good at following the clock. This third rise is supposed to be 2-3 hours, but by about an hour and 45 minutes I could see it had risen quite a bit, had some good bubbles and was petering out. I know from experience that if you let it keep going it can deflate and get dense, so I moved forward.
I removed the plastic wrap, carefully slashed the tops of the loaves (don't want to do anything to deflate it -- it's pretty fragile). Placed a loaf pan with about ½ cup water in the bottom of the oven, returned the loaves to the oven in the pan and turned the oven up to 450.
At 45 minutes I checked the internal temp and it was around 200 (want about 210). I cranked the oven up to 500 (wanted more browning) and put the loaves back in for 5 minutes.
Very happy with these results. Nice chewy crust, good texture with some decent air holes, good flavor. Just the right amount of sour, which is kinda why I go to the extra effort.
So, sourdough isn't that much harder than regular bread. Maintaining the culture isn't anything more than stirring in some flour and bottled or distilled water (no chlorine) once a week and storing it in the fridge. The bread-making process isn't much different -- just takes longer because sourdough yeast isn't as strong as commercial yeast. No more steps, just longer waits in between.