How to Feed a Sourdough Starter with Bread Flour

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Learn how to feed a sourdough starter with bread flour. Feeding a sourdough starter requires two ingredients, and in just seven days, you’ll have a healthy sourdough starter for baking flavorful, naturally leavened bread!

How to Feed a Sourdough Starter with Bread Flour

When it comes to sourdough, everyone likes to focus on the wild yeasts, but a sourdough starter isn’t all yeast; it’s a mix of yeasts, lactic acid-producing bacteria, and acetic acid-producing bacteria.

In wild sourdough starters, yeasts ferment wheat carbohydrates into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Then, bacteria in the sourdough starter metabolize the alcohols produced by the yeasts into acetaldehyde and then into acetic acid… making it sour. 

There are many ways to feed a sourdough starter, and no one way is “correct.” Sourdough starters can be thicker and drier or thinner and more hydrated. You can also use any type of flour to feed a sourdough starter, but here we will focus on bread flour.

How to Feed a Sourdough starter and Keep it Healthy

Sourdough is fascinating because so many different types of microbial metabolism and fermentation are happening all at once.  Yeasts make bubbles and visible expansion in a starter, but bacteria make all the flavor. When more good bacteria are present, they can help boost yeast populations by feeding them usable acids and eliminating waste products (alcohol).

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “discard and feed.” The point of discarding and feeding your sourdough starter is to replenish the microbe’s food source so that the accumulation of waste products does not kill the yeast and bacteria.

Ingredients and Tools to Feed a Sourdough Starter

1. Flour: I’ve used many flours to make a sourdough starter. For this recipe, we will use organic bread flour. The type of flour you use will influence the flour-to-water ratio you should use. Whole grain flour, especially sprouted flour, works well with a 1:2 flour-to-water ratio. White flour, like bread flour and all-purpose, work best between a 1:1 and 2:1 flour-to-water ratio.
2. Water: Filtered water is best, but you can use tap water if you think you have good tap water. I use tap water that has been filtered through our water filter pitcher.
3. Glass Jars and Cheesecloth: I like to use a glass weck jar for my starter. The mixture needs access to air to grow well, so you can use the glass weck jar lid without sealing it, or something like cheesecloth with a rubber band.
4. Kitchen Scale: If you frequent our blog, you should already have one of these on hand. You can find a good kitchen scale option HERE.
5. Environment: Temperature is important when it comes to growing healthy yeast and bacteria in a sourdough starter. Your kitchen temperature should be between 60-80 degrees F. Colder temperatures mean slower growth.

How to Feed a Sourdough Starter (thinner, hydrated)

When first starting your sourdough starter, in the first seven days, it’s best to start with a thinner starter. You may not see your starter hold a rise for long, but it’s better for getting the microbes established.

The best ratio to get things going is 1:1. So for example that would be 50 grams of bread flour, 50 grams of water, and 50 grams of established starter.

Bread flour sourdough starters fed 1:1 will usually rise and bubble up in 4-6 hours, then fall back down to look flat.

How to Feed a Sourdough Starter (thicker, dry, that holds a rise)

So many people email me saying things like “I fed my starter 8 hours ago, and I see bubbles, but it didn’t rise.”

It did rise, it just fell back down.

If you want to feed your starter before bed or work and see it 8 hours later, still risen and bubbly, you need to make a thicker starter. If you want to snap pics of your starter, and you expect it to look like the ones on Pinterest and Instagram you need to make it thicker.

For a thick bread flour starter, you can feed a 2:1 ratio of bread flour to water. So, for example, that would be 100 grams of bread flour, 50 grams of water, and 50 grams of established starter. It will be very thick, and it may dry out a little on the top, but it will hold a rise you can see.

Step Two (Day 2)

1. Stir sourdough starter mixture.
2. Add in 50 grams of organic bread flour
3. Add 50 grams of water.
4. Mix and scrape down the sides. Replace a breathable lid. Leave the mixture on the counter for 24 hours.

Step Three (Days 3-7, Feeding and Discarding)

1. to a clean bowl add:
   • 50 grams sourdough starter mixture from day 2
   • 50 grams of organic bread flour
   • 50 grams of water
2. Stir until evenly combined, and scoop into a clean jar.
3. Replace the breathable lid and allow it to ferment for 24 hours.
4. Discard any remaining original starter mixture. Or you can find fun ways to use sourdough starter discard, like this muffin recipe.
5. Repeat every 24 hours through day 7.

Step Four (The Night Before Baking)

You can feed your starter however much you need to here. If you plan to bake five loaves, for instance, you can feed your entire starter 300 grams of flour and 300 grams of water in a large bowl and cover it.

1. 8 hours before starting a baking recipe, in a bowl, combine:
   • All of the starter
   • 100 grams of organic bread flour
   • 100 grams of water
2. Stir until evenly combined.
3. Scoop the starter into a large jar.
4. Place the breathable lid on the jar and allow it to ferment for 12 hours.

Day 8 (Baking Day)

1. Perform a float test by dropping a teaspoon of starter into a cup of room-temperature water. If it floats, it’s ready for use. If your starter does not float, continue to feed and discard until it passes the float test.
2. If your starter passed the float test, put 50 grams of starter aside and continue feeding (using steps 3 and 4). Use the rest of the starter for your baking recipe.

How to Feed a Sourdough Starter, Quick Option (2 Days Total)

This is a fun way to speed up the sourdough starter process. Adding in a little raw, wild-fermented sauerkraut brine helps to boost the Lactobacillus population in the starter. This means that the mixture gets more sour and flavorful faster!

To make a sourdough starter with sauerkraut brine, simply follow the directions in the recipe, but add in 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut on the first day. After the first day discard and feed with flour and water like normal.

With the addition of sauerkraut brine, you should have a bubbly starter within two days.

How to Feed a Sourdough Starter After Refrigerating

If you’ve used some of your sourdough starter to bake, and you do not plan on using your starter again anytime soon, you can hibernate it.

1. In a clean jar add:
   • 50 grams starter mixture
   • 50 grams organic bread flour
   • 50 grams water
2. Stir until evenly combined, and scrape down the sides of the jar. Close it with a solid lid and place it in your refrigerator.
3. To revive your starter, take it out of the fridge and start discarding a feeding it again.

Easy Sourdough Baking Recipe

• Dutch Oven Sourdough Boule Recipe
• Rustic Rosemary Sourdough Bread
• The Best Maple Pecan and Cinnamon Sourdough Bread Recipe

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