Sourdough Starter Care

A sourdough starter is a living culture of flour and water kept active by regular feeding. Keep it predictable and the rest of your baking gets easier — most “my bread didn’t rise” problems trace back to a starter that wasn’t ready.

Feeding ratios

A feeding is described as a ratio of starter : flour : water. A common maintenance feed is 1:1:1 by weight — equal parts existing starter, fresh flour, and water. Feeding more flour and water relative to the starter (say 1:5:5) dilutes the culture and slows it down, which buys you more time between feeds. Lower ratios rise faster but sour and exhaust sooner.

Most starters are kept at 100% hydration (equal flour and water by weight), which keeps the baker’s percentage math simple when you build a levain.

Room temperature vs. the fridge

• Room temperature — feed roughly once a day (more often in a warm kitchen). Best when you’re baking frequently and want the starter lively and on-call.
• Refrigerated — feed about once a week. The cold slows fermentation, so a fridge routine suits bakers who bake occasionally. Pull it out and give it a feed or two at room temperature before baking to wake it back up.

Warmth speeds everything up; cold slows it down. Tracking feed times and temperature is exactly the kind of record Sourdough Journal is built to keep, including separate histories for each starter if you maintain more than one.

How to tell it’s ready

A starter is ready to bake when it’s at or near its peak — roughly doubled since the last feed, domed and bubbly, and just starting to look like it might fall. A common confidence check is the float test: drop a small spoonful in water, and if it floats, it’s full of gas and likely ready. Once it deflates and smells sharply sour, it’s past peak and due for a feed.

From here, the natural next steps are understanding hydration and baker’s percentage so the levain you’ve just grown slots cleanly into a formula you can repeat.