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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Hi,
Yesterday I decided to make a starter. I followed a recipe (not this one) and it told me that after I made it I should leave it out for the night. when I woke up this morning to check on my starter, I found that was bready on the top and the rest was an amber liquid. I stirred it all in and refrigerated it, and it looks fine. But recently a clear liquid developed on the surface. I just took it out of the fridge and placed it on the counter and I was wondering what you would recommend I do with it. Should I feed it or is it too early for that? Thanks.
Are you just beginning to make your starter? While you’re growing the starter it should not be refrigerated. You can read through my method for creating a sourdough starter to see photos of the various stages.
Hi!
A little late on the ball, but I’ll give it a try. If you intend to keep the sourdough starter in the fridge and feed it once a week, and for this example, not intend to bake it. Do you stil use warm water when feeding it? Do you put it right back in after feeding or keep it at room temperature for a while?
The reason for the feeding is to give the yeast some food to keep it alive. The yeast is more active at warmer (not too warm) temp. Use warm water to activate the yeast and leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours to give it time to multiply and grow. Then it can go back in the fridge.
When you are ready to refrigerate your starter in the glass quart jar, do you screw the lid on or do you leave it loose?
Once the starter is active and ready to go in the refrigerator I use a tight fitting lid.
@Eileen Gray, I have been setting the lid on but not screwing it down with the ring, it seems to be ok. I love how you answer every ones questions so well. I have lots of ? haha I’m just getting started to the sour dough world. thank you
Hello
I just started making sourdough bread in March when I couldn’t find yeast. I make 6 loaves of bread twice a week. I use 3 cups of starter for a batch of 6 loaves. So I never discard any starter. After I make the dough, I feed the starter a couple of times and put it in the refrigerator. I take it out in a couple of days when I make bread again. I usually use it right out of the refrigerator without feeding it. I don’t really measure when I feed the started I add about 3/4 cup of flour and then enough water to make it like a pretty thick pancaker batter. Is this OK. Will the starter go bad or get really strong if I don’t discard any? This has been working for about 6 months and I’ve started selling some bread at a farmers market. I just don’t want to ruin my starter. Thanks
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I have found that if I refrigerate my starter and then take it out within a day or two it is still good to use without feeding. The refrigerator slows down the fermentation. You may be pretty consistent if you have a good eye for how the starter should look when you feed it without measuring. But, personally, I would weigh the ingredients to be sure the starter is consistent, especially if you are selling your product. For selling, consistency is key.
I really enjoy your website, in particular your sourdough recipes. I started my sourdough journey in June and have now reached a level of comfort with my bread making and maintaining my starter. I have begun to experiment and have since made your soft white sandwich loaf and donuts. Your recipes are quite user friendly. Will continue to experiment with your other recipes. Thanks a mil.
You are quite welcome. Glad you having fun with sourdough. It’s endlessly fascinating.