Maintaining a sourdough starter correctly, is key to be able to make sourdough bread successfully. Your sourdough starter has the goal to make dough rise and turn your bread into a healthy (and yummy!) one. That said, it is important that you carefully read the guide below, as it will give you the knowledge to maintain a healthy and strong sourdough starter.
Is it difficult to maintain a sourdough starter?
It is not difficult to maintain a sourdough starter! It is easy to get overwhelmed by all the information that is out there. However, if you know the basic concepts on how and why you are feeding a sourdough starter, you will end up finding your own process.
Where do you get a sourdough starter?
If you know someone who has one, you can ask for 10 grams! If you don’t now anyone, or would like to start with a strong sourdough starter, click below to purchase mine. I ship it everywhere in the USA with video and pdf instructions. Plus always, my email support!
Where should you keep a sourdough starter?
Your sourdough starter should be always kept in the refrigerator. The only moment in which it will be sitting outside of the refrigerator is when you are feeding it, process that is also known as refreshment. When you feed your sourdough starter, you need/want the starter to rise and temperature is key for that to happen. Anytime after the sourdough starter rises (it needs to double at least) you can place it back in the refrigerator.
Remember not to place the sourdough starter in the refrigerator immediately after it has been fed. The cold temperature will not allow the yeast and bacteria living in there to feed and reproduce (which is when the starter rises). After a feed, keep it at room temperature (hopefully a warm spot at around 80F) until it doubles, and then you can proceed to take it back to the refrigerator.
What type of container should you use to keep your sourdough starter
Ideally you want to use a container made from a material that is safe in the presence of acids. Remember that the by-products of the bacteria present in the sourdough starter produce acids. For that reason you want to stay away of any material that might corrode. However, as you will be maintaining the sourdough starter weekly, you will switch to a new container every week.
Material and size of the container
Stick to glass or a heavy duty plastic container. Regarding the size, if you are using the feeding ratio I recommend later on this post, you will need a container that is at least 6 inches tall and 3 to 4 inches wide. It is more useful to use a tall container, to be able to clearly see when the sourdough starter rises.
Use of a lid or not
It is important to use a lid, to keep any unwanted living organisms or pet hair from contaminating the sourdough starter. The lid, needs to be lose and have the ability to easily open if there is CO2 being trapped that might create pressure inside! You want to avoid any pressure inside the container as it might break the container and create an accident.
How to Maintain a Sourdough Starter
As mentioned above, the maintenance of a sourdough starter requires performing regular ‘feedings’.
What does a 'feed' mean?
A ‘feed’ is when you provide new flour and water to X amount of sourdough starter.
What ingredients (and quality) should you use to perform a feed?
To perform a feed you will be using all purpose flour and water.
It is very important that you use good quality ingredients as the sourdough starter is a living organisms made up of wild yeast and bacteria.
Therefore, you will need to avoid ingredients which are heavily processed and contain bleach, yes.. bleach~. Keep reading for more details.
All Purpose Flour
Use flour that has not been bleached or bromated. An easy brand to find that meets these standards is King Arthur Flour. If you have a home mill, or have access to freshly milled flour it is even better! If you would like to use bread flour or whole wheat flour to feed your sourdough starter, that is also fine as long as the quality meets the standard we just discussed.
Water
When feeding a sourdough starter you want to stay away from water that is chlorinated. In large cities, water is heavily chlorinated! (I live close to Philadelphia and most of my students have issues with their sourdough starter and the water). If that is the case for you, please use filtered or bottled water. Anything that will provide water without chlorine.
What ratios of flour, water to sourdough starter should you use?
My go-to ratios for feeding a sourdough starter are the below. Have in mind that when feeding a sourdough starter, you are always paying attention to the ratios of flour and water to sourdough starter. You can think of it in a more simple way as: 10 grams of sourdough starter to 100 grams of all purpose flour to 100 grams of water. These amount will follow the below ratio.
10:100:100 (sourdough starter : water : flour)
This ratio, will make the sourdough starter double in 12 hours, if left to rise in an 85F environment. I always use a dough proofer. If your temperature is lower, it will take longer, the opposite if its higher.
Is there a single way to feed a sourdough starter?
There is not a single or an exclusively correct way of feeding a sourdough starter.
Just for your reference there are different types of sourdough starters used everywhere in the world. Some that are commonly used are: rye starters and lievito madre (which is the sourdough starter used to make Pannettone in Italy). These sourdough starter have different ways of being fed, as they trying to achieve particular characteristics in flavor. The difference among these, not only rely on the type of flour used to feed them, but the quantity and the temperature in which they are kept at.
The above, is just to give you an idea of what is out there, as the sourdough starter world is HUGE! What I am explaining here, is a simple sourdough starter, that can be used for home baking and serves endless types of breads.
What happens when you feed a sourdough starter?
Visually
You will see the sourdough starter building bubbles inside, and it will slowly start rising. It will eventually double, sometimes even more! After the sourdough starter has reached its peak, it will deflate and completely collapse. By then, the texture of the sourdough starter will change, as it will become runny/liquid.
Internally
The yeast and bacteria present in the sourdough starter will feed on the sugar they find in the flour. As they eat, they will start producing their byproducts. Which for the yeasts is CO2 and for the bacteria is lactic and acetic acids. As the yeast produces CO2 you will notice the starter rising. At some point, both microorganisms eat all the available food. At that point is when you see the starter deflating until it collapses to where it started.
How often should you feed a sourdough starter?
How often you need to feed the sourdough starter will depend on how much you are using it. If you are using the sourdough starter to make bread, once a week or once every 2 weeks, I recommend feeding the sourdough starter once a week.
You will take the sourdough starter from the refrigerator once a week, perform a feed, wait for it to double, and then take it back to the refrigerator.
Why do you need to feed a sourdough starter?
The yeasts and bacteria present in the sourdough starter are living organisms and hence, need to be fed. When these micro-organisms are constantly fed, they start behaving in a strong and consistent way. This characteristic is specially important when making bread because it will mean that you can have consistent results.
What happens if you stop feeding the starter
When you stop feeding the sourdough starter, you will notice that a dark liquid starts forming on top. Take a moment to look at the photo.
The dark liquid, does not mean the sourdough starter is dead and needs to be discarded. It only means that is in starvation mode, and would be happy if being fed. Follow the feeding ratios provided earlier in the post to bring back this dormant sourdough starter to life.
Just so you know, as you might ran into this word…The name used in the sourdough world for that dark liquid is ‘hootch’.
Difficulty to rise...
When you neglect the sourdough starter, you will most likely, need to perform several feeding before it consistently rises and doubles.
The sourdough starter will probably not rise at all or might rise very little after the first feed you give it when it has been unfed for a long time.
For that reason, it is important to keep the temperature stable and warm at all times! 85F ideally.
After 12 hours of being fed, given that you have provided a warm and consistent environment, you can go ahead and feed again, even if it hasn’t risen. You should notice that the consistency of the sourdough starter has changed and turned liquid and that is a good sign!
When does a sourdough starter die?
The sourdough starter will die if it gets mold or a different disease. You will notice orange spots on the surface. The presence of mold (hair) also means your sourdough starter needs to be discarded.