How to feed your sourdough starter
In this easy to follow guide, we’ll show you how to maintain and feed your sourdough starter to keep it active and ready to bake your favorite sourdough bread. We’ve included step-by-step pictures and answered the most common questions about feeding sourdough starters.
If you read this post, you’ve already created an active, bubbly sourdough starter. And now you’re wondering what’s the best way to maintain and feed your starter to keep it alive and ready for baking. (If you don’t have a starter yet and want to learn how to make one, please check out our tutorial on how to make sourdough starter from scratch!).
Why do I need to feed my sourdough starter?
You must feed your sourdough starter regularly to keep it alive and ready for baking. If you don’t, the wild yeast and bacteria will starve and produce a liquid called hooch. But don’t worry; maintaining your sourdough starter is super easy once you know how!
How do I know if my starter is hungry?
Let’s start at the beginning. You know we need to, but how do you know when to feed your starter? While making your starter, you have seen that an active starter rises and falls after you’ve added fresh flour and water, which is one of the things you want to look out for.
A hungry starter falls and won’t rise again. It will fall back to the base level when it becomes hungry, and the bubbles will disappear. The consistency of the mixture will also change from a paste to almost a thick pancake batter.
It can also produce a liquid on top of the starter. This is a sign that it’s hungry and needs feeding. This liquid can also form in the middle of your starter, and you can just stir it back in with the flour and water.
Another thing to look out for is the smell of your starter. When it’s time for another feed, it can smell like alcohol, acetone, or sour. This is because the yeast in the starter produces a bit of alcohol when the mixture ferments.
How often do I need to feed my starter?
Most starters need freedom every day or so, but it all depends on the temperature in which you keep it and how often you use your starter.
Frequent baker
If you're a frequent baker and use your starter almost every day, it is best to keep it on your counter. This takes a little more work than keeping it in the fridge because you will need to feed it daily to keep it active and bubbly.
But what if you don’t bake that often?
You can keep your starter in the fridge if you bake less than a few times a week. The cold will slow the fermenting process, and you only have to feed it every two weeks or so when you’re ready to bake. If you want to know more about keeping your starter in the fridge, you should check out our tutorial.
What do I need to feed my starter?
Flour: When you first create your sourdough starter, it’s best to use whole wheat flour. However, for maintenance, you should switch to all-purpose flour. Ensure that your flour is unbleached and choose the highest quality you can afford.
Water: In most areas, you can use tap water as long as it doesn’t contain a lot of chemicals like chlorine. If you’re unsure, you can use filtered or bottled water to feed your starter.
Kitchen scale or cups: You need a kitchen scale or cups to measure your flour and water.
How do I feed my sourdough starter?
Always start by mixing your starter to incorporate any liquids and dry bits. After that, take out half of your starter. You can either throw the leftover discard away or keep it to make one of our sourdough discard recipes!
Next, you want to add 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup of water to your jar and mix until all the lumps are gone. You want to make sure there are no dry bits left, and everything is mixed in. After you clean the inside of your jar, you can place the lid back on, and that’s it! After a few hours, your starter will become nice and bubbly, and that’s when it is ready to start baking.
What is the best ratio?
There isn’t one ratio that is better than the other, because it all depends on your starter, but to keep things simple, I recommend starting with a 1:1:1 ratio to feed your starter. This means you take one part sourdough starter, one part water, and one part flour. Make sure to use a kitchen scale! If you’re set on using cups, you need 1/4 starter, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 cup water.
How long after feeding is my starter ready to use?
Your starter is most active and ready to make breads when it reaches peak rise, and when that happens depends on many factors and is different for everybody. On average, this will take about 4-8 hours after feeding your starter, but it can take longer when it’s cold or when you’ve just taken your starter out of the fridge.
Our tips for maintaining and feeding sourdough starter
- Experiment to find the best ratio to feed your starter.
- Use unbleached all-purpose flour.
- Feed your starter a few hours before you want to make your dough to make it active again.
More helpful sourdough resources
Feeding sourdough starter
Equipment
- 1 kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sourdough starter
- 1/2 cup flour unbleached
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- To feed your starter, you need about 1/2 cup and throw away the rest.
- Add the flour and water and mix until everything is combined, and you have a smooth mixture.
- Clean the inside of your jar and loosely place back your lid.
