How to feed your sourdough starter is likely the first question you have when you’re given a sourdough starter.
And truth be told, this can be a very loaded question. But I’m here to help.
I’m going to break down this beginner question and make things as simple as possible for you.
I want you to feel prepared and ready to conquer your first successful sourdough loaf of bread, but first we have to master the sourdough starter.
I’m going to share with you how I personally feed my sourdough starter and have successfully fed it for the last 7 years.
Everyone finds their own groove that fits their schedule and home routines.
You may take my advice or find a rhythm that works for you. I just want to help you get started and answer some of those pressing questions, so let’s get to it!
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Don’t yet have a sourdough starter?
If you do not have a sourdough starter yet, here is a Day by Day Guide to help you make your own Sourdough Starter. And if you have further questions about starter sourdough, check out my “I Have a Sourdough Starter, Now What?” post that covers more detailed questions than this post.
First lets talk simple equipment
There are 3 simple kitchen tools that I think are necessary when maintaining a sourdough starter.
Let’s talk jar first.
I highly recommend using a glass jar to keep your starter in. The clear glass allows you to see your sourdough starter rise, and so you know when to bake with it.
Now the size of your jar depends on preference.
I personally use a quart or 1 liter size jar. This is a manageable size for me to keep a small amount of starter in, and to grow my starter large enough to make four loaves at once.
If you do not plan to use your starter often or bake in large batches, then a pint size jar will be best suited for you.
If you plan to bake in large quantities that will require a lot of starter at once, then I recommend using a half or full size gallon jar.
Okay moving on. Number two is a rubber spatula.
I recommend using a rubber spatula when mixing your starter inside the jar. The flexibility of the rubber allows you to easily mix everything together.
The mixture can get tough to mix if there is a lot in the jar, so using a light weight tool is helpful.
The rubber spatula also helps scrape down the sides of your jar after you are done mixing. Which is essential because your jar is going to get messy!
And lastly a kitchen scale. Now this is not completely “necessary”, but worth it!
You can successfully keep a sourdough starter and bake sourdough without a scale and you may work your way up to that point. However, a scale is most helpful early on in a beginners journey!
Why? Because a scale will help you measure out the correct amount of flour and water when feeding your starter. This consistency will help your sourdough starter thrive, which is the goal, right 😉
Alongside that, most sourdough recipes are written in grams, so again, using the correct amount of flour and water can make or break your recipes.
Until you gain that “pro” status, a scale will help you avoid all the headaches of figuring out what consistency your starter and recipes should be like.
So take my advice and just get yourself a cheap kitchen scale please 🙂 thank you! 😉
What kind of flour should you use?
There are different kinds of sourdough starters based on the flour type that you use. The most common sourdough starter is a wheat sourdough starter.
I keep a wheat sourdough starter myself, therefore I am only going to feed my starter with wheat flour. Here are some wheat flour examples:
- Whole Grain
- Whole Wheat
- Unbleached All Purpose
- Einkorn, Kamut
- Bread Flour
- Or any other wheat flour
As long as you’re feeding your sourdough starter any kind of flour that is in the wheat family, it will be just fine. You can totally switch it up, if you run out of one kind of flour. Just keep it wheat and you’ll be fine.
I personally feed my sourdough starter with Organic All Purpose Flour.
This is because I can buy it in bulk at Costco. It’s my cheapest, healthiest, organic option to constantly be feeding my sourdough starter with.
You could certainly feed your starter with a high protein bread flour too.
I choose not to because bread flour is expensive and I prefer to use bread flour in my recipes only.
So I feed my starter the basic all purpose because it’s a cheaper option, and I find it doesn’t change the performance of my starter in my recipes.
But you can feed your starter anything in the wheat family with whatever your heart desires. 🙂
What Kind of Water should you use?
Filtered water is best for sourdough. I have a Berkey Filtration System that filters our well water. I realize not everyone has this, but if you do a have Berkey, then use this water.
If you have a reverse osmosis in your home or under your sink, this is fantastic water to use as well.
Spring water is a great store bought option. The gallons of water at the store are cheap and will last you a while.
Purified water works well too but I would recommend spring water over purified because the natural minerals are left in the spring water versus purified where the minerals are added back in.
Do not use distilled water! This water is what I would call “dead” water because it has been stripped of everything good, minerals included.
Minerals are vital to a healthy sourdough starter so be sure the water you use is mineral rich and you will have a healthy, happy starter 😉
When to feed your sourdough starter
I recommend feeding your sourdough starter twice per day.
Morning and Evening.
But let me be the first to tell you that your starter is not a ball and chain.
For example, you do not have to feed it at 7am and 7pm, or exactly 12 hours apart.
If you sleep in and forget to fed it right away, it’s okay if it gets fed at 10am. And same with the evening.
You are not going to ruin or kill your starter by not keeping the feedings 12 hours apart.
Just as long as you’re keeping the feedings up twice a day to keep your starter fresh for a majority of its days, it will be all good.
Also know that if you forget a feeding here and there, IT’S OKAY! It takes several missed feedings in a row to kill your starter. And even then, you could probably still bring it back.
They’re amazingly resilient!
Sourdough Environmental Adjustments aka Sourdough Growth Health
Why is my sourdough not growing? This is another common question that depends on many factors including environment and season. But stay with me!
First let me explain that sourdough starter thrives in a warm environment (aka your home or kitchen).
If your home or kitchen is below 70 degrees, it may be harder for your sourdough starter to grow and keep active. (But don’t let this keep you from doing sourdough!)
This is why I recommend starting a sourdough starter in the summer because it’s so warm and the sourdough will thrive in the summer months.
However, an environment that is too warm can speed up the fermentation process and require you to feed or use your starter more often.
You will know it’s hungry when it starts to smell acidic and have an acetone scent, similar to that of nail polish remover.
Now in the winter time the opposite can happen, if your home is cold. Your starter may take a while to grow because the cooler temperatures cause fermentation to slow way down.
If there are no warm places in your home or kitchen, you can invest in something like a seedling heat mat you plug into the wall. Place your sourdough starter and bread recipes on top of the mat to help them ferment through the colder months.
This is wonderful because it emits a very small amount of heat, but it’s just enough to activate your sourdough and keep the fermentation going strong.
They’re not that expensive and everyone I know who has one says they can’t live without it.
I highly recommend this seedling heat mat if you don’t already own one.
Do I need to discard first before a feeding?
NO!
People discard when they keep their sourdough starter on the counter all the time.
They feed twice per day and at each feeding they will remove a big scoop of starter and feed their starter fresh flour and water.
That removed portion is considered “discard” and many people don’t want to throw it away because it would be wasteful. So they keep it in the fridge inside another jar that keeps building up with more and more discard starter.
Let me tell you a secret that I don’t need to keep.
This act of “discarding” your starter is totally unnecessary and completely wasteful in my personal opinion.
To each their own. But I do not use this “discard method” for sourdough and you don’t have to either!
What you can do instead is just maintain a SMALL sourdough starter.
Only keep 1 tablespoon of starter left behind in your jar after each time you use it.
Look ahead to the recipe you want to make next and only feed your starter the amount needed for your recipe.
If you don’t want to bake for a few days, feed your starter, cover it, and let it ferment. Then place your starter in the refrigerator until the next time you are ready to bake.
It’s that simple!
And now there is no more wasteful discarding 🙂
Feed your starter more flour that water
This is my preference and a method that works for me. I used to feed my starter equal parts flour and water.
Easy right? Yes! And you can totally do this. Most professionals do it this way.
But I have found that the water causes the starter to ferment quicker and weighs down the starter earlier, before I am ready to bake.
I don’t like to use a runny starter for my recipes.
Feeding my starter more flour than water creates a more airy, pillowy starter. Resulting in recipes that are less runny and sticky.
It ends up being about 5-20 grams less water than flour, depending on the amount I’m feeding my starter.
More on this in the next question.
How to feed your sourdough starter
Now for the long awaited question: how to feed your sourdough starter?
Tell yourself this is simple and not to overthink it!
I’ll make this simple and easy: Add your sourdough starter to your glass jar.
Feed it flour and water and mix everything together with a rubber spatula.
Scrape down the sides of the jar and scrape off the spatula leaving everything at the bottom of your jar.
Cover it with a lid and leave it to ferment for up to 12 hours.
Now ask yourself these two questions, “What do I want to make with my sourdough starter?” and “When do I need the recipe by?”
These questions will help in both feeding ratio amounts as well as help you consider the timing for your feedings.
Let’s start with the first question, What Do I want to make with my sourdough starter?
Let’s say you want to make sourdough cinnamon rolls. You will look ahead to your recipe and see how much sourdough starter the recipe requires.
This recipe calls for 100 grams of sourdough starter.
Like I mentioned above, because I recommend maintaining a small amount of sourdough starter you may only have a tablespoon or two of starter in your jar.
But regardless of the amount of starter you have (you do not need to weigh it out, just feed whatever starter is left in the jar, it could even be a half cup of starter, and that’s okay) just feed your starter the amount in grams that your recipe calls for.
For example: The cinnamon rolls recipe calls for 100 grams sourdough starter. Remember I like to feed my starter more flour that water, so here you will feed your starter around 55 grams flour and 45 grams water to equal the 100 grams required for the recipe.
This allows you to be able to remove enough starter to use for your recipe but also leave enough behind to re-feed and grow your starter back again.
Question two: When do you need the recipe by?
Again, you’ll want to consider the recipe you’re going to make. Then think backwards so you can work forwards!
If you’re going to bake your cinnamon rolls in the morning, you will need to start your recipe the night before, which requires you to have an active starter that was already fed in the morning.
So one whole day before you need the recipe by, you would feed your starter in the morning. Let it ferment throughout the day. Then pull from your starter in the evening to make the cinnamon rolls, so they can ferment overnight and be ready to bake the next morning.
See how you have to forward think a little in order to have an active starter when you need it?
It really isn’t complicated, you just have to think through the timing of when you need your recipe by. Then depending on the timing of the recipe itself is when you fit it into your own schedule.
How much to feed your sourdough starter
I briefly just touched on this answer above with discard.
Here is the best way to maximize your starter and not be wasteful.
Look ahead to the recipe you’re going to make next. Read how much starter is required for that recipe and then feed your starter that amount in grams (sourdough uses gram measurements).
Now, keep this in mind. If the recipe calls for 100 grams of sourdough starter, you will feed your starter around 55 grams flour and 45 grams water.
This ensures that you have fed your starter enough for your next recipe, while still leaving starter left behind in your jar to feed again and grow it back.
It’s a very simple technique and helped me make sense of my feedings so I didn’t over or under feed.
Maintenance Feedings
Most likely you aren’t going to be baking everyday. If you are, kuddos to you!
But if you have a day or two between when you want to bake, and you don’t want to put your starter back into the fridge, then I recommend feeding your starter small maintenance feedings.
They can be anywhere between 30-50 grams of flour and water.
This allows your starter to remain small and keeps it fresh with a new feeding, while also building it up for your next recipe.
You may need to use this technique after pulling starter for a recipe.
I always feed my starter a maintenance feeding after I use it for a recipe, especially if I don’t plan to bake with it right away.
You will likely have a few of these maintenance feedings between baking and that is okay.
Just know your starter will keep growing the more you feed it, so you will eventually need to use it before your jar gets too full 😉
But that is also a good time to pass along some extra starter to a friends and keep the sourdough love going <3
I hope this post has been helpful for you and you feel ready and prepared to begin your sourdough journey.
Do you have more questions that need answers?
I have more questions and answers on another blog post that you may find helpful too. So head over to my “I have a Sourdough Starter, Now What?” blog post next and find more helpful tips there.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any other questions that I can answer.
Happy Sourdough Baking Friends 🙂
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I am completely technologically illiterate so is there a way to print out your directions?
Same question….all the adds and other things make this very hard to read. Is there a way to print out these instructions?