How to Feed & Maintain your Sourdough Starter
You’ve done it! You’ve created a living batter filled with wild yeast. Now let’s look at how to feed and maintain your sourdough starter so it stays healthy and ready to bake when you are.
If you haven’t made your starter yet, start here: How to Make Sourdough Starter from Scratch.
This post is part of my broader approach to sourdough baking. If you’d like a deeper look at feeding, maintenance, troubleshooting, and recipes, visit the Sourdough Baking Guide.
Table of contents
My Approach to Maintaining a Sourdough Starter
I tend to have a fairly relaxed attitude toward sourdough maintenance. Starters are resilient, and they don’t need to be handled with kid gloves to survive.
There are many ways to feed, maintain, and use a sourdough starter. Below, I’ll show you the method I use at home, which is flexible, forgiving, and well-suited to most home bakers.
As long as your starter is fed periodically and given time to become active before baking, it will usually do just fine.
At the end of this post, you’ll find a step-by-step feeding guide with exact ingredient amounts and instructions. First, though, let’s go through the hows and whys.
Where to Store Your Starter
Room Temperature vs. Refrigerator
Since I don’t bake every day, I keep my starters (I have two) in the refrigerator. For most home bakers, refrigeration makes long-term maintenance much easier.
Storing a starter in the refrigerator significantly slows fermentation and reduces how often it needs to be fed. I recommend feeding your refrigerated starter about once per week when you’re not baking.
If you bake daily, you may prefer to keep your starter at room temperature, where it will need to be fed every day. Otherwise, the refrigerator is your friend.
When to Feed Your Starter
How and when you feed your starter depends mostly on your baking schedule. If you’re a when-the-mood-strikes baker like me, I suggest keeping your starter in the refrigerator and feeding it about once per week when you’re not baking.
When you’re ready to bake, you’ll need a fed and active starter.
If your starter has been fed within the last two to three days and has been refrigerated, you may be able to use it without feeding. The dough may ferment a bit more slowly because of the cooler temperature, but the starter can still perform well.
As you get to know your starter, you’ll develop a sense of when it’s active enough for baking. When in doubt, feed the starter and give it time to become fully active before mixing your dough.
How to Do a Float Test
To test for yeast activity, drop a small dollop of starter into a bowl of water. If it floats, it’s ready for baking.
If you plan to bake and your starter needs feeding:
How far in advance you feed your starter depends on how long your recipe takes.
- If you are making a two-day recipe, take the starter out of the refrigerator early in the morning on the day you want to mix the dough. Feed it right away and it should be ready by early afternoon.
- If you are making a one-day recipe, take the starter out of the refrigerator the night before and feed it. It should be ready to use first thing in the morning.
Understanding Discard
If you continually feed a starter without discarding any, you’ll quickly end up with more starter than you can reasonably use.
Discard is simply the portion of starter that’s removed before feeding.
Discard doesn’t have to be thrown away. Even if it’s not active enough to bake bread, it can be used in many other recipes as a flavor and texture enhancer.
If you bake less frequently, you may find yourself discarding a lot of the starter just to maintain it at 12 oz. If that’s the case, a smaller starter might be a better fit.
Maintaining a Smaller Starter (Low-Waste Option)
Maintaining a smaller starter follows the same principles as maintaining a full-size starter—the only difference is the amount you keep on hand.
Here’s how it works:
- Reduce the overall amount of your starter from 12 oz to 3 oz.
- To maintain your small starter all the information outlined in this post still applies. The only difference is that you discard 2 oz of starter at each feeding.
- The remaining 1 oz of starter is mixed with 1 oz of water and 1 oz of flour.
- When you’re ready to bake take the entire 3 oz of unfed starter and feed with 3 oz of water and 3 oz of flour. You now have 9 oz of starter. Once the starter is active, use 8 oz in your recipe. You will have 1 oz left to continue the feeding cycle.
Common Questions About Feeding and Maintaining a Starter
Honestly, I’ve gone longer than a month without feeding my starter and I haven’t killed it yet. Give it a feeding and see if it wakes up. If it’s alive, keep feeding it until it is reliably doubling in size within 4-5 hours.
If you go more than about 2 weeks between feedings, you might want to give the starter 2-3 feedings before using. A starter that hasn’t been fed for weeks will be out of balance and sluggish.
If your starter was fed a day or two before, it’s possible to use the starter straight from the refrigerator. Give it a float test to make sure it’s active. The dough may take a little longer to ferment since the temperature of the dough will be colder. Use warmer water (about 110-120°F) to mix the dough to speed up the process.
It’s called “hooch” and don’t worry, your starter is still alive. Just stir that water back into the starter before feeding. You might need at least 2 feedings to completely revive and rebalance the starter.
To maintain your starter at 100% hydration it is best and most accurate to weigh your ingredients. If you’re just a little bit off every time you feed, eventually, your starter could be thrown out of balance.
No problem, use the amount of starter called for in the recipe. Then weigh out 4 oz of the remaining starter for feeding and discard the rest.
Yes, If you continually feed the starter without discarding, you’ll end up drowning in starter.
Yes, even if the discard is not active enough for baking bread, you can add it to many other recipes as a flavor and texture enhancer.
Unless you’re going away for an extended time, your starter should be just fine for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. If you’ll be gone really long-term, put the starter into the freezer or dry it. Frozen or dried starter will need several feedings to rejuvenate.
Feeding Your Sourdough Starter: A Quick Reference
Below is a simple reference guide showing how I feed my starter each time.
If this guide was helpful, a 5-star review is always appreciated.
How to Feed Sourdough Starter
Video
Ingredients
- 4 oz unfed sourdough starter (see note)
- 4 oz all purpose flour
- 4 oz water (room temperature)
Instructions
- Weigh 4 oz unfed sourdough starter into a clean container. Discard the extra starter (see note)
- Add 4 oz all purpose flour and 4 oz water and mix until combined. Set aside at room temperature.
- The starter is ready to use when it has doubled in volume and a small spoonful floats when dropped into a bowl of water. This generally takes 4-5 hours but the time can vary based on dough temperature and room temperature.
- If you do not plan to bake with the starter on the day it is fed, refrigerate 3-4 hours after feeding.
- Feed refrigerated starter weekly. If you go longer than a week without feeding, you may want to give the starter two feedings before using.
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If I feed the starter at night should I leave it out overnight to use to make dough in the morning?
Yes. By morning is should be nice and active.
If I want to save discard for new starters for family do I feed it then refrigerate till I can deliver them?Thanks
Yes, exactly. Just use the discard (4oz) to create a new starter and maintain until you can deliver it. Happy Baking!
Thank you, your site has been very informative for me.
If you’re discarding a portion of the starter but you want to use it the next day in baking, can you save the discard In the fridge for use? Or do you have to use it that same day?
Do you keep your starter at room temp? If you do, why not just refrigerate the entire starter then take it out the next day and use what you need and feed the starter then? If you keep the starter refrigerated just wait a day to feed it. Hope that answers your question.
I am confused. Do I throw away the bulk of the stater every week if in frig and reduce my starter down to 1/2 c if I am not using it to bake that week…I was confused by your explanation above. Why are you discarding 2oz to have 18oz?
You should always have 12 oz of starter as the base. Each time you feed the starter you either discard (if it’s not active) or use (if it is active) 8 oz of the starter. The remaining 4 oz is combined with 4 oz of water and 4 oz of flour to regenerate the starter base back to 12 oz. For folks who bake every day or several times per week, the starter will remain active and the 8 oz that is removed can be used right away for baking. For folks who bake less often and store the starter in the fridge between baking sessions the starter will go dormant in the refrigerator. In other words, the yeast has eaten most of the food available from the previous feeding and needs more food before it’s active enough for baking. In that case you must to discard the 8 oz of starter because it’s not active enough for baking. The previous comment about the 18 oz of starter is specifically for someone who was interested in doing a double bake in one day. You can ignore those numbers if you only plan to bake 1 recipe at a time. I hope this answers your question. Ask me if you need more clarification.
Brand new to sourdough starters and your blog is serving as my life line. I want to make sure I understand this discard correctly because I was given a small amount and am trying to work up to storing a larger starter (LOVE your small starter page btw). I was getting really confused about where my discard would come from if I maintained 12oz but I THINK I get it now… If I want to maintain 12oz but will probably only bake once a week I would…
1. Pull out my starter from fridge
2. Discard 8oz bc it’s likely gone dormant (correct?)
3. Feed remaining 4 back to 12oz
4. Use 8oz for the recipe I want
5. Feed the remaining 4oz again to be back to a base starter of 12oz
Right? And I could take out and feed my starter the night before- leave it out overnight. Then I’d have 8oz ready to use by morning, correct?
Hi Katherine. Sourdough is not a straightforward business so it’s sometimes hard to give a concrete answer. If you want to keep a larger 12 oz starter than what you’re listing is basically correct. All my recipes use 8 oz of either starter or discard. If your starter has been in the refrigerator for a week or two and hasn’t been fed then you will remove and discard (or use in a discard recipe) 8 oz of starter. Feed the remaining to bring back to 12 oz. Use that fed starter to bake a sourdough recipe within the next day. When you pull off 8 oz of fed starter for the recipe feed again and refrigerate. I have found that if I’ve fed my starter and it’s only been in the fridge for a day or two I can go ahead and use it for a sourdough recipe without feeding first.
Good morning, people who know everything are not always good teachers.
I have been reading and learning about sourdough baking for three months and this is the first time I have seen the proper ratio of starter to flour to water for the feeding of the starter.
For me, I only use grams so I need to do some conversion sometimes.
I am learning very useful information, thanks.
I enjoy your website and recipes. Thank you.
I have a dumb question…When feeding a starter, do I need to measure 4 oz. each time and discard and then add that or add to the starter without discarding what I have in container?
Another question…Can I have 8 oz. of starter then add 8 oz. of AP flour and water to that?
I would like to make sourdough bread and pretzels the same day. so I need to make sure that I have enough sourdough starter.
This is my first time making starter so it is trial & error for me.
Thanks
Let me see if I can answer your question. The way I have my starter recipe written you should always have 12 oz of starter as your base. Each time you feed the starter you take out 4 oz of the unfed starter and combine it with 4 oz of flour and 4 oz of water. Discard (or use) the remaining 8 oz of starter. The main thing to remember is that you always feed with equal weights of starter-water-flour. That way the starter doesn’t get out of balance. If you want to do a double bake in one day you could remove the 4 oz and feed. Set that aside as your base starter. You’re now left with 8oz. I would discard 2 oz so you’re left with 6oz. Feed that 6oz with 6oz of water 6oz of flour. You’ll have a total of 18oz. When that starter is active and ready, use what you need for the two recipes and you should just have to discard the leftover 2oz. Does that make sense?
That’s a great answer for, me, too! Thanks! You’re my sourdough guru, Eileen!
I had this EXACT question with the starter instructions i’m following! Glad its explained here, thank you for asking 🙂