how to feed sourdough starter
Everything you need to know about how to feed sourdough starter to maintain an active, strong starter!

Congratulations, you are the proud parent of a mature sourdough starter! Now that you’ve made my sourdough bread recipe (perfect for beginners) you might be left with more questions than answers. This post will tell you everything you need to know about how to feed sourdough starter including how to store it, when to feed it, how much to feed it, and so much more!
If you are like me, and you are one to gather all the information before embarking on a journey, then you haven’t made your starter yet. After you read and digest this post, head on over to my sourdough starter recipe for a detailed roadmap to getting that wild yeast party started!
Table of contents
4 Ways to Store Sourdough Starter
In this section I will describe your options for storing your sourdough starter and how often to feed it depending on how frequently you plan to bake with it.
- Store at room temperature for frequent bakers. Whether your room is warm or cold, you’ll want to feed a starter at room temperature once per day. You can also feed twice a day (every 12 hours) to maintain a very strong and active starter, but that is your choice.
- Store in the refrigerator. If you have no imminent bread making plans, and no reason to be wasting flour endlessly feeding your starter, place a fed starter in the refrigerator for 2 weeks without feeding. I always feed my starter then pop it in the fridge to ensure the yeast slow down and have access to a lot of food.
- Store in the freezer. If bi-weekly still feels like a lot, or you are going out of town, place that fed starter in the freezer for up to 2 months.
- Dehydrate your starter for long-term storage. This is a little trick I learned in professional bread school. When you are running a restaurant or a bakery that makes sourdough, you cannot be without a backup starter. Spread your fed and happy starter thin on a piece of parchment paper, then let it dry out at room temperature. Take those flakes and store them in a non-humid environment for an emergency. You can rehydrate them and have an active starter in a day or two.
- Bonus – Secure a starter babysitter for extra long-term: When I had my first child, I enlisted the help of a trusted friend who was also a former sous-chef and professional baker. She took care of my sourdough starter while I took care of myself and my newborn baby. I actually had a panic attack when I awoke from my post-partum stupor and I couldn’t remember when I had last fed her (my starter)!
Ingredients & Tools Needed for feeding Sourdough
These are the bare minimum requirements for maintaining a sourdough starter. For more suggestions on tools for those just starting out or advanced bakers, head to my essential sourdough tools post.
- Unbleached All-Purpose Flour: I like to maintain a neutral flavored starter, which means that after the first week I will feed my sourdough starter 100% unbleached all-purpose flour. You can easily use a neutral starter to create a multitude of sweet or savory breads like sourdough cinnamon rolls or sourdough focaccia. A neutral starter will leaven and not interfere with the dominant flavor. This way you control the final flavor with the ingredients like in my whole wheat sourdough bread recipe. It is a personal choice and you can use a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flour or rye flour for additional strength and a different flavor.
- Water: I always use tap water for feeding sourdough starter, but I live and work in New York City. If you live somewhere with hard water (a lot of minerals), you should use distilled water, bottled water or filtered water. High mineral content will inhibit fermentation and tighten the gluten structure, resulting in less airy bread. Chlorine can also inhibit the growth of yeast and bacteria. If you are concerned, you can boil and cool tap water to room temperature or set tap water in a container for 24 hours to naturally dechlorinate.
- Two containers: If you have already created your starter, then you probably have already chosen containers. Choose mason jars, Weck jars, or food-grade quart or storage container with smooth sides. No matter the container be sure it is free of soap or chemical residue. In commercial kitchens, we simply rinse out the containers before feeding the starter, but at home, I throw the second one in the dish water. It’s real life, people.
- A stiff spatula: You can use your hand; I always did in my professional kitchens, but at home I use a little silicone spatula. These 8.5 inch silicone spatulas are my favorite. I own approximately a billion. Choose a spatula with a flat edge and one sharp corner for efficient stirring. Also choose one with a stainless steel support from the tip to the handle. The extra effort isn’t worth it.
- A basic kitchen scale: I’m going to be the unpopular kid and just say it, “Accurate and predictable sourdough bread making requires a kitchen scale.” It doesn’t have to be fancy. I received my first Escali food scale in culinary school in 2015 and I still use and recommend them today. There are other cool scale options (yes, cool), and I dive into those in my sourdough tools post.
- A rubber band: I use a rubber band to mark the top of where my stirred and fed starter is, so I can track when it has doubled. When I am just feeding and not making bread, I don’t bother. Use a produce rubber band, hair tie, whatever.

Sourdough Starter Feeding Ratio
In many ways the particular ratio that you choose to feed your sourdough starter is a personal choice. The important thing to remember is that no matter the chosen ratio, you can make any type of levain from that active starter. In this section I will outline the 2 most common ratios.
- Equal Parts Flour to Water: The most common way to feed ones starter, especially for home bakers, is with equal parts flour and water by mass (in grams). It is important to know that ½ cup flour weighs more than ½ cup water, so that isn’t the same thing. It is also important to know that it is entirely fine to feed and maintain your starter by volume if it is easier for you, but it will be inconsistent. The variable part of this ratio is how much active starter you add. In a warm environment (in the Summer), I use 10% of the amount of flour as my starter measurement. In the winter I double that to 20% because my kitchen gets COLD.
- 125% water for a more liquid levain: Don’t run away! Math is fun! It simply means for every 100 grams of flour, you will add 125 grams of water. Choose your flour amount and multiply by 1.25 to get the total amount of water. You have the same choices as above for how much starter to add. To our example of 100g flour, I would add 10 grams (10%) of starter in the Summer and 20 grams (20%) of starter in the Winter, to achieve the same predictable rise. I can be more difficult to revive a struggling starter with more water than flour because the food is farther apart. If you are in that boat, use the ratio above.
How to Feed Sourdough Starter
Use these instructions to maintain a happy, active and strong sourdough starter. If your starter is in the refrigerator or the freezer, allow it to come to room temperature on the counter before feeding.
Step 1: Place a clean starter jar on a kitchen scale. Tare the weight so it reads “0”, then to the jar add 20 grams of starter, 100 grams unbleached all-purpose flour and 100 grams distilled water (or tap water) at room temperature.
Step 2: Stir the mixture vigorously with a spatula until no dry bits of flour remain.
Step 3: Cover the starter jar loosely with a lid, and place on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. Discard or save your excess starter.


Can I save sourdough discard?
I often throw out or compost my sourdough discard unless I have particular plans for making a sourdough discard recipe like sourdough waffles, for example. If this offends your heart or you also had a grandmother who said “waste not, want not,” then you can save the discard for later use.
When you feed your starter take the remainder of the fed starter and place it in a container in the refrigerator for later baking. This way you have a cache available for your next batch of sourdough pancakes or sourdough blueberry muffins when the craving strikes!
Others have differing opinions and practices, but I do not keep my sourdough discard longer than 2 weeks in the fridge. Remember that the yeast are still active, though slowed, when refrigerated, and they will continue to ferment. Eventually they will run out of food and the acid byproducts will build up. This will greatly affect both the taste and texture of your baked goods. No one wants chewy, overly sour, muffins.
How different storage options change feedings:
- Room Temperature. No additional steps are required when maintaining a starter at room temperature. Just don’t forget her.
- Refrigerator: If you are going to bake bread the following morning, remove your starter from the fridge the day before, at least 2 hours before you need to feed it. Allow it to warm to room temperature, feed it and then set aside. It will be ready the next day unless you neglected her longer than 2 weeks. If you did, jump to the FAQ’s where I cover this common and totally normal scenario.
- Frozen: If you want to use or feed your frozen starter, simply remove it from the freezer 6-10 hours before you plan to feed it; feed it as normal; and then repeat the feeding 12 hours later. You will want to repeat this process until it is rising and falling on a consistent schedule. You can either feed it one last time then put it in the fridge or you can bake away.
- Dehydrated / Dried Starter: Simply take 15-20 grams of the dried starter, add 50 grams water and stir to rehydrate. Add 50 grams of unbleached all-purpose flour, cover and allow to sit for 24 hours. You will want to repeat this process until it is rising and falling on a consistent schedule.

How to use your starter in sourdough bread baking
When your starter predictably rises and falls by producing lots of bubbles and it at least doubles in volume in about 12 hours, it is ready for sourdough baking!
12 hours before you wish to mix your bread dough, feed your starter according to the recipe instructions and add at least an additional 10% on top of each measurement. This ensures that you will have enough for both your recipe as well as to feed and keep your starter going!
When your sourdough starter reaches its peak (typically has more than doubled), mix your bread dough and follow the recipe as written! You can’t go wrong with this sourdough bread recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, discarding part of the sourdough starter during each feeding is essential to the creation and maintenance of a sourdough starter. This controls the power of the starter by limiting the quantity in the new starter; it ensures that there is enough food available to feed all the yeast; and it keeps the by-products of fermentation from building up in your starter, which will affect the flavor and future fermentation.
Come close and I’ll tell you a secret; There are times in my busy, everyday life when I don’t have or want to take the time to actually weigh the ingredients for feeding but my starter still needs to be fed! I will discard most, add a little water and then add flour until I get a stiffer levain. It is important to note that I only do this if I do not have plans to use my starter the next day. The goal is to feed her and then move on. We’re busy.
Real talk: it’s going to be fine as long as your starter is fairly mature. If you started it 2 weeks before and then forgot her for a month, she might be too far gone, but she also might be just fine. Remove her from the fridge, pour off the hooch, and feed the whole thing with equal parts water and flour. I recommend a stiffer levain for reviving possibly dead starters because then they have access to more food. Feed it again in 24 hours with your typical ratios, but using double or triple the amount of starter that you normally would. The odds that the majority of the yeast in your starter are dead, is high, so you are trying to maximize the possibility of capturing and feeding the most amount of live yeast as possible to revive the culture. If you left it in there for a really long time and you are feeling exceptionally guilty, then feed it twice a day (every 12 hours) to try and jumpstart the wild yeast community.
Many people make a huge deal about when precisely to feed sourdough starter, and let me tell you that it isn’t that serious. As long as you feed a room temperature starter approximately every 24 hours and a refrigerated one once a week or bi-weekly, he/she will be a happy camper.
Did I miss the part where you talk about how to store your starter in the fridge?? I’m interested in trying to make my own sourdough but I’m really not looking forward to babysitting a starter every day for the rest of my life!
Lydia, totally agree! I actually mention that in my sourdough recipe post (the post in the series just before this one). But as a refresher — once you’ve made the levain for your sourdough bread, take another 20g of your mature starter and add it to a clean starter jar. Add 50g whole wheat flour, 50g all-purpose flour and 80g of distilled water. Mix it all together (it’ll be a lot stiffer than what you’re used to), cover it with a lid and refrigerate it for a week, no more than 2 weeks. A couple of days before you plan to bake bread, take the starter out of the fridge, let it come to room temperature (about 2 hours), then proceed with its feeding schedule (2x/day, every 12 hours). Once it starts rising and falling again, you’re ready to make a levain and bake again! Hope that helps — again, see my sourdough recipe post for the full details!
I love this because we were wondering the same. We have been doing sourdough before you started this using another starter that I won’t mention here but we are honestly tired of babysitting it and I keep forgetting to call and ask (if that give a hint to whose starter we have been using –not that we dont love your recipes) about putting it in the fridge.
Sarah — I hope that the fridge tip saves you so much time! 🙂