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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I really appreciate your information it answered most of my questions on keeping and using sourdough.
We are going away for a few weeks and I was wanting to put my starters in the freezer (I have two, one regular and one wheat free for my wheat-allergic daughter). When do I put it in the freezer? Should I feed, let it rise like normal, and then put it in that day? Or wait a few days, maybe until the night before we leave? And when we get back, do I thaw it and feed it right away? Or thaw for a few days in the fridge first? I also need to have a look at drying some of it, but that might be better left until we get back and I have time to make sure I understand it properly (my luck, I’d mess it all up!)
How long are you away? Honestly, I’ve left my starters for a month (and more) and have no problem reviving them. If you feed the starters just before you leave and feed them as soon as you get back I don’t think you should have any problem. If the starter is very sluggish upon return you could give it 2 feeding before baking with it. You could dry some of the starter or discard as a backup. This all applies to the wheat starter. Not having experience with wheat free starter I can’t speak from experience. But I’d bet you’d have the same results if the starter has a similar activity cycle as the wheat starter.
@Eileen Gray, we will be gone 3 weeks, but it would be probably 4 weeks between feeds if I follow my normal feeding day. Trying not to cram all the possible “things to do” into the day before we leave because it drives my husband crazy when I do that! I usually keep the starters pretty small (1/2 oz of each part for feeds) but I suppose I could do the full amount that is in each jar. The wheat free one might be on a different cycle because it never seems to have the same consistency/texture as the other one. I’ve never thought to give it a different time though…might try that this weekend! Thanks!
I have a question. I have a 7week old starter. been on counter. been feeding twice a day and using it to bake.
when can I put in fridge. I have read 3 to 4 months. I am soo ready to put in fridge.
please get back to me.
thank you
I started putting mine in the fridge right after they were ready. Sourdough starters are much less fussy than some would lead you to believe. I suggest taking out of the fridge and feeding 1x per week if you can. But, honestly, I’ve gone more than a month without feeding (refrigerated) and haven’t killed a starter yet. Also, if you’ve got lots of discard you can dry drying the discard rather than tossing it.
You mentioned 100% hydration as being equal ants by weight. Are there other hydration’s? What are they used for?
You could keep a thicker starter by using more flour than water by weight or a thinner starter with more water than flour by weight. Obviously a stiffer starter will yield a stiffer dough and a wetter starter will yield a moister dough. There are more factors involved, such as the temperature you keep the starter at and how frequently you feed. But generally a lower hydration starter (stiffer) tends to produce a bread with more acetic acid which has more of the tangy, vinegary flavor. A more liquid starter will tend to produce more lactic acid, or milky, flavor. Again, this is not a straight forward result. How you handle a starter from hydration to feeding frequency to holding temp will affect the final loaf. I develop my recipes with a consistent process of temperature, hydration and feeding to try and keep the results consistent for readers. But you can experiment with all the factors to make your perfect loaf.
How do I add feed to the Starer before taking of for baking? I am almost left with nothing !
I’m not sure exactly what your question is. Did you read through the post and instructions? You feed 4 oz of starter with 4 oz of water and 4 oz of flour. When that is ready and active you can use the amount of starter called for in your recipe. Then feed the starter again to bring it back to the starting weight (12 oz). Feeding, using and refeeding the starter is a cycle.