How to Feed a Sourdough Starter

If you’ve already got a sourdough starter in the kitchen, you will need to maintain a daily feeding schedule to keep it alive and thriving.

You can feed it with any flour that you have on hand, just DO NOT use bleached flours. All-purpose UNBLEACHED flour is fine. I always use organic flour as well. For a more sour and vigorous yeast, use whole wheat or rye flour. If your dough gets too sour, you can transition it to a milder yeast by using all-purpose flour for the next several feedings.

If you are going to be out of town or just want to take a break from feeding your yeasty baby, just cover it and pop it into the fridge. It will keep for up to 3 months.

When you take it out of the fridge, it may look dead or have a liquid floating on top. That’s ok. Stir it and smell it. If it smells like strong beer or wine or strong yeast, that’s a good sign. If it smells like nothing, that’s ok too. If it smells rotten or rancid, it probably is. The liquid that floats on top is fine. It’s called “hooch,” and it’s just a message from your yeast that it wants to be fed. Stir it down and feed your starter.

Sourdough starters are pretty resilient. It’s tough to kill these guys with regular maintenance. Hot temperatures and neglect will be the death of your wild yeast. Keep it cool (72F – 80F) and fed and it will reward you well.

The flour to water ratios in this recipe are what I use to keep waste to a minimum. You can change the amount of flour and water that you use in your starter depending on how much bread you bake with it. You just need to maintain a ratio of 100% flour to 100% water. Any weight or combination of flours is fine. I typically keep 15-25 grams of starter, then add 100 grams of purified room temperature water then add 100 grams of various flours.

Jump in, be patient and enjoy experimenting in the world of fermentation.