Learn how to feed and maintain your sourdough starter in this complete guide!
When you’re first getting started with sourdough baking, it can be really confusing trying to navigate how to feed and maintain your starter. When should you feed it? What ratios should you feed it? When is it ready to bake with?!
I’ve got those answers and more in this complete guide to keeping your starter happy.
I’m going to go over the different phases of a sourdough starter, and then I’ll share a couple of methods of maintaining it and answer some common questions. Let’s dive in!
Table of contents:
Video Tutorial
Here’s a quick video overview in case you learn better by watching. The written tutorial is below!
The 3 Phases of a Sourdough Starter
First, I’d like to point out that there are 3 main phases that your starter will go through:
Phase 1: Getting Going
This is the phase when you’re just getting your starter going. Make sure to check out my How to Make a Starter From Scratch tutorial if you don’t have a starter yet!
You’ll need to be more careful about how you feed your starter during this phase.
Phase 2: Established, But Fragile
During this phase, you’ll be able to bake with your starter. However, it’s still too fragile to miss many feedings or store it in the refrigerator.
Once your starter is 2-4 weeks old, it will probably enter phase 3.
Phase 3: Well Established
This is the phase when your starter is strong and can handle variations in temperature and feedings.
I will be assuming that your starter is in phase 3 for the rest of the post unless otherwise noted.
If you neglect it too long, it may return to phase 2 for a while. But it should bounce back with regular feedings.
During this phase you can use the Once a Week Feeding method outlined below.
Hydration Levels and Types of Flour:
The next thing I’d like to clear up is the type of starter you have.
I keep my starter at 100% hydration (I feed it equal weights, NOT volumes, of flour and water), and I feed it organic all-purpose flour.
If you keep your starter at a different hydration percentage and/or feed it a different type of flour, it will react differently than my starter.
How to Feed a Sourdough Starter
Feeding your starter is so very easy. Simply add equal weights of organic, all-purpose flour and filtered water to your sourdough starter. Give it a really good stir, making sure everything is well combined – you don’t want big patches of dry flour.
Put the lid on your jar and add a rubber band to mark the height of the starter.
Place your starter in a warm spot in your kitchen, and allow to at least double in volume before using. This can take anywhere from 4-12 hours, depending on how active your starter is, what feeding ratio you used, what type of flour you used, and how warm your kitchen is.
What is Peak Fermentation?
Peak fermentation is when your starter reaches its peak height and activity after feeding it. It will likely have a little dome on top, depending on what type of flour you fed it – some flours, such as einkorn, may not dome.
Peak might not be doubled in volume – your starter could rise even higher than that before it reaches peak! Here’s a video demo of peak fermentation.
To know for sure that your starter has reached peak, you can wait until just after it starts to sink down and lose a bit of its height.
You can use your starter a little before or after peak, but if you go too far outside that window your final results will be affected.
If you leave your starter too long after peak, it will eventually sink back down to its original height. If this happens, simply feed your starter again and wait for it to reach peak.
How Much Should I Feed My Starter?
It all depends on how much starter you need for your recipe! But you want to feed it a bit more than what you’ll need in your final recipe.
So if your recipe calls for 220 grams of starter, feed it so you end up with 250 grams. That way you’ll have a bit left in the jar to feed after you pour off what you need in your recipe.
What Ratios of Starter, Flour and Water Should I Use?
You want to feed your starter at a 1:1:1 ratio of starter, flour, and water or greater. It’s okay to feed at a higher ratio such as 1:5:5 or even 1:10:10. But you want to make sure that you’re feeding your starter the same weight or greater than the base starter.
For example, if you have 50 grams of starter in your jar, you’ll want to feed it at least 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. A 1:5:5 ratio would be 50 grams starter, 250 grams flour, and 250 grams of water.
If you feed your starter at a ratio greater than 1:1:1, this is known as overfeeding your starter. Keep in mind that if you overfeed it, it may take longer to double in volume.
How often should I feed a sourdough starter?
The short answer is: whenever it’s hungry! You can tell that a starter is hungry if it has doubled in volume, fallen, and begins to smell quite sour. This usually takes anywhere from 4-12 hours.
If your starter is really strong and your house isn’t super warm, you might be able to get away with feeding it once a day.
But if your starter is really active and doubling a few hours after feeding, it’s best to feed it twice a day.
If you store your starter in the refrigerator, you’ll only need to feed it once a week. I’ll discuss that method in more detail in a bit.
Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it?
When you’re in the beginning stages of Phase 1, you’ll want to throw out some of your starter every time you feed it. There can be some funky smells at the beginning before the good bacteria has had a chance to get established.
After that, you’ll want to discard every time you feed it until it’s strong enough to be baked with. You can save the discard in a jar in the refrigerator until you have enough to make pancakes.
Once your starter is in Phase 2 or 3, you’ll still want to pour off some starter every time you feed it. But during this stage, what you pour off can be what you use in your recipe. Then you can feed whatever is left in the jar so it’s ready for your next bake or feeding.
If you don’t pour off or use some starter before feeding it, you’ll probably start drowning in starter.
Feeding Schedule 1: Baking Every Day
If you want to use your starter every day, you’ll want to keep it at room temperature and feed it daily.
A great way to do this is to feed your starter in the morning when you get up, and again just before you go to bed. Some recipes do better with a mid-day feeding, so you may need to switch up the feeding schedule now and then.
But you’ll want to aim for 2 feedings a day. It’s okay if you miss a feeding here and there. But you find that your starter is sluggish, you’ll want to be more consistent.
Feeding Schedule 2: Once or Twice a Week Baking
If you don’t want to use your starter every day, this method is for you! You simply store your starter in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake with it.
After you use your starter for baking, feed it and either put it directly into the fridge, or let it sit out for an hour or two and then store it in the refrigerator. You can go up to a week between feedings with this method.
Then when you want to bake something, you can either use the starter directly from the fridge, or feed it first before baking. Some recipes will do well with a starter directly from the fridge, but more delicate recipes may require feeding it a time or two first to “wake it up” again.
No Waste Sourdough Method:
If you’re careful about how much you feed your starter, you can escape having to pour cupfuls of it out.
Whenever you feed your starter, carefully calculate how much you’ll need in a recipe. Then feed your starter so that you’ll use up all but about 30 grams of the starter.
For example, if you recipe calls for 240 grams of starter, feed it so that you end up with 270 grams total. So if you have 90 grams of starter in your jar, feed it 90 grams each of flour and water. Then after you use the 240 grams in your recipe you’ll be left with 30 grams of starter, which you can feed 30 grams each of flour and water.
Then you’ll have 90 grams of starter in the jar, ready to be fed the next time you want to bake!
Of course if you want to bake with it again right away, you can simply feed it the amount you’ll need for your recipe.
And if you ever miscalculate and have extra starter on your hands, you can always pour it into a jar and store in the refrigerator for making discard recipes.
Scrapings Method:
I am so grateful that my sister taught me this method right from the start. It’s so freeing to realize that you can use up almost every bit of starter, and it’s no big deal!
This is similar to the no waste method, but you only feed your starter a tiny bit more than what you need in your recipe.
Do I leave my sourdough starter out after I feed it?
If you’re feeding your starter to get it ready to bake with, you’ll want to leave it out in a warm spot so it has a chance to double and get bubbly.
If you’re feeding your starter just before storing it in the fridge for a week, you don’t have to leave it out before popping it in the fridge.
Can you overfeed a sourdough starter?
Yes, it’s totally fine to “overfeed” a sourdough starter. Keep in mind that if you’re using a tiny amount of starter and feeding it a lot of flour and water, it may take a lot longer to double and get bubbly compared to feeding it at a 1:1:1 ratio.
But that might actually be desirable!
Can I feed my starter at night and use it in the morning?
Yes, I do that quite often! Keep in mind that if your kitchen is really warm, your starter might double and fall overnight.
This is a great time to use a higher feeding ratio. You’ll need to experiment to see how your starter behaves in your own kitchen, but you could start with a 1:10:10 feeding ratio (starter: flour: water), and see how close to peak your starter is when you wake up the next morning.
Should I wash my jar?
If your jar is looking nice and clean, you don’t need to wash it super often. But it’s a good idea to give a wash if it’s super crusty or looking filthy.
Transfer your starter to a clean jar. Wash the dirty jar with warm water and a very mild soap. Make sure to thoroughly rinse all the soap out.
Then you can either pour your starter back into the now-clean jar, or simply use the jar you originally poured it into as your “new” starter jar.
What if my starter is smelling/looking weird?
If you find that your starter is not behaving properly, please check out my Sourdough Starter Troubleshooting post! In that article I go over some common problems such as a sluggish starter, what to do if your starter smells weird, gets moldy, etc.
And if you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer it!
Happy Sourdough Baking!
