🍞 Easy Sourdough Starter From Scratch
What You Need
- Whole wheat or rye flour — best for getting your starter going
- All-purpose or bread flour — for later feedings
- Water — preferably filtered or dechlorinated, lukewarm or room temperature
- A clean glass jar (500–750 ml)
- A spoon or small spatula
- A kitchen scale, if possible
Important: A kitchen scale makes this much easier because sourdough starter works best by weight.
Day 1 — Make Your Starter
In your clean jar, combine:
- 50 g whole wheat flour
- 50 g water
Mix thoroughly until there are no dry patches. The consistency should be similar to a thick pancake batter.
Scrape down the sides of the jar.
Cover the jar loosely with a lid. Don’t seal it tightly because the starter will produce gas.
Leave it somewhere warm, ideally around 24–27°C (75–80°F), for 24 hours.
What to expect
You may see nothing happen on the first day—or you may see a few bubbles. Either is completely normal.
Day 2 — First Feeding
Check your starter.
You might notice:
- A few bubbles
- A slightly sour or floury smell
- Little or no change
Don’t worry if it doesn’t look active yet.
Remove and discard approximately half of the starter.
Then add:
- 50 g all-purpose or bread flour
- 50 g water
Mix well.
Cover loosely and leave it for another 24 hours.
Day 3 — Continue Feeding
By Day 3, you may start seeing more bubbles.
Your starter might also rise slightly and develop a stronger smell.
Again:
- Discard half of the starter.
- Add 50 g flour.
- Add 50 g water.
- Mix thoroughly.
- Cover loosely.
- Leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
Don’t panic if it suddenly becomes very active!
Sometimes a new starter becomes extremely bubbly around Days 2–3. This is often an early bacterial bloom, not necessarily a mature starter.
It may become quiet again afterward. Keep feeding it.
Day 4
Repeat the same process:
Discard half → add 50 g flour + 50 g water → mix → rest.
At this point, your starter should hopefully have:
- More bubbles
- A pleasantly sour smell
- Some rising after feeding
- A slightly airy texture
If it’s still barely moving, that’s okay. Some starters simply take longer.
Days 5–7 — Build Its Strength
Continue feeding every 24 hours.
However, once your starter starts becoming very active, you can switch to feeding it twice a day.
Basic feeding
- Keep 50 g starter
- Add 50 g water
- Add 50 g flour
Mix well.
This gives you a 1:1:1 feeding ratio by weight.
For example:
50 g starter + 50 g water + 50 g flour
🫙 How to Know Your Starter Is Ready
Your starter is ready to bake with when it consistently:
1. Doubles in size
After feeding, it should rise to roughly twice its original volume.
2. Does this reliably
It shouldn’t just rise once. You want it to do this consistently over several feedings.
3. Becomes bubbly
You should see bubbles throughout the starter, not just a few bubbles on top.
4. Smells pleasantly sour
A healthy starter can smell:
- Tangy
- Yogurt-like
- Fruity
- Slightly yeasty
- Mildly acidic
It shouldn’t smell rotten or putrid.
5. Rises within several hours
A strong starter will generally rise noticeably within about 4–8 hours after feeding, depending on temperature, flour, and feeding ratio.
🥄 The Float Test
You may have heard about the float test.
Take a small spoonful of starter when it is near its peak and place it gently into water.
If it floats, it may indicate that the starter has accumulated enough gas to potentially bake with.
However, don’t rely on the float test alone.
A starter that consistently doubles or triples after feeding is a much better indication of strength.
⚠️ What If My Starter Isn’t Working?
It smells like acetone or nail-polish remover
This usually means the starter is hungry.
Feed it.
You can also increase feeding frequency to twice daily once it’s active.
It smells very sour
That’s usually normal. Sourdough naturally becomes acidic.
There is liquid on top
A grayish/brownish liquid called hooch can appear when the starter is hungry.
You can stir it back in or pour it off, then feed the starter.
It isn’t rising
Possible causes include:
- Your room is too cold.
- Your flour doesn’t contain enough nutrients.
- You’re feeding too frequently before the starter has had time to develop.
- Your starter is still young.
Try keeping it somewhere warmer and use some whole wheat or rye flour.
There is mold
If you see fuzzy mold or clearly unusual colored growth such as pink, orange, or green, the safest option is to throw the starter away and begin again with a clean jar.
🌾 Best Flour for Beginners
For the first few days, I recommend:
50% whole wheat flour + 50% bread/all-purpose flour
For example:
- 25 g whole wheat flour
- 25 g bread flour
- 50 g water
Whole wheat flour contains more nutrients and microorganisms that can help establish a starter.
Rye flour can work particularly well too.
🥖 Once Your Starter Is Mature
You don’t need to keep making huge amounts of starter.
For regular maintenance, you can keep just 20–30 g starter.
For example:
20 g starter + 40 g water + 40 g flour
That’s a 1:2:2 feeding ratio.
Let it become active, then use what you need for baking.
🧊 Storing Your Starter
If you bake frequently, you can keep your starter at room temperature and feed it regularly.
If you only bake occasionally:
- Feed your starter.
- Let it become active.
- Put it in the refrigerator.
- Feed it about once a week.
Before baking, take it out and give it one or more room-temperature feedings until it becomes active and reliably doubles again.
⭐ Simple 7-Day Schedule
| Day | What to Do |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | 50 g whole wheat flour + 50 g water |
| Day 2 | Discard half + 50 g flour + 50 g water |
| Day 3 | Discard half + 50 g flour + 50 g water |
| Day 4 | Discard half + 50 g flour + 50 g water |
| Day 5 | Continue feeding; twice daily if very active |
| Day 6 | Continue feeding |
| Day 7 | Bake if it consistently doubles and looks bubbly |
Most important: Don’t worry if yours takes 10–14 days rather than 7. Temperature, flour, water, and the natural microorganisms in your environment all affect how quickly a starter develops.
If you want, I can also give you a very easy first sourdough bread recipe using your new starter, including exact grams, kneading/stretch-and-fold instructions, proofing times, and baking temperature.