Feeding your sourdough starter doesn't have to be complicated. Learn what to feed it, how feeding works, when to feed it, and how to tell when your starter is ready to bake.
🐿️ The Short Answer
Feeding sourdough starter means giving your culture fresh flour and water so the wild yeast and beneficial bacteria have new food to ferment.
Your starter is a living culture. The microorganisms inside it consume nutrients from flour during fermentation.
Eventually, much of that readily available food has been used. Feeding introduces fresh flour and water and gives the culture another opportunity to become active.
Think of feeding as giving your starter its next meal.
🥄 What Do You Need?
🌾Flour Flour provides the nutrients your starter needs for fermentation.
💧Water Water hydrates the flour and creates the environment fermentation needs.
🥣A Clean Container Use a container with enough room for your starter to rise.
⚖️A Kitchen Scale Weighing ingredients makes feeding much more consistent.
How Do You Feed Sourdough Starter?
The exact feeding ratio can vary depending on your starter and baking routine, but the basic process is simple.
Keep the amount of starter you want to maintain. Remove excess starter if necessary so you aren't continually multiplying the amount in your jar.
Add fresh flour. This gives your culture new nutrients to ferment.
Add water. Mix thoroughly until the flour is fully incorporated.
Mix well. Make sure there are no dry pockets of flour remaining.
Let it ferment. Keep your starter in a comfortable environment and watch for bubbles and rising activity.
📈 How Do You Know Your Starter Is Ready?
Don't rely on the clock alone. Watch your starter.
🫧Bubbles Active fermentation creates visible bubbles throughout the starter.
📈Growth A healthy active starter should rise after feeding.
👃Fermented Aroma Your starter should develop a pleasantly fermented smell.
🔄Predictable Activity A mature starter develops a recognizable rise-and-fall cycle.
⏰ How Often Should You Feed It?
There isn't one feeding schedule that works for every baker.
A starter kept at room temperature generally needs more frequent feeding than one stored in the refrigerator.
Your baking schedule, kitchen temperature, flour and feeding ratio all influence how quickly your starter consumes its food.
🐿️ Watch your starter, not just the clock. Learning its rise-and-fall pattern is one of the best ways to understand when it needs another feeding.
What If My Starter Isn't Rising?
Don't assume something is wrong immediately.
A starter can become sluggish because of temperature, feeding routine, flour, hydration or simply because it hasn't become strong yet.
If you're trying to activate a new starter, give it time and follow the activation instructions carefully.
Bake or Get Covered: If your starter fails to activate into a bubbly, active, bake-ready culture. We’ll either send you a fresh replacement batch completely free or issue a 100% refund.
No hoops to jump through, no complicated returns, and no hard feelings.