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You’ve got your sourdough starter—now what? Whether you made a starter from scratch (I’ve got an easy guide for that!), rehydrated a dehydrated starter, or purchased one ready to go, you’re officially in the world of sourdough baking. Now it’s time to learn how to feed your sourdough starter, maintain it, and keep your starter healthy for all your future sourdough bakes.
This guide will walk you through the simple science of the fermentation cycle and how to care for your starter—whether you’re baking every day or just once a week. From feeding schedules to fridge storage, you’ll find everything you need to confidently maintain a strong, active starter and start making delicious sourdough bread.
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Table of Contents
- What Is a Sourdough Starter?
- Understanding the Sourdough Fermentation Cycle
- Ingredients Needed to Feed a Sourdough Starter
- Tools Needed to Feed a Sourdough Starter
- How to Feed a Sourdough Starter (Basic Method)
- My Favorite Sourdough Discard Recipes
- How to Keep Your Starter Strong
- When is your Starter Ready to Use?
- Fridge vs. Counter Storage
- How Much Should You Feed Your Starter?
- Feeding A Sourdough Starter Without A Scale
- Common Issues + Troubleshooting
- Sourdough Starter Frequently Asked Questions
- New to Sourdough?
- Beginner Sourdough Recipes
- How to Feed and Maintain A Sourdough Starter Recipe
What Is a Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeast and beneficial bacteria. Put simply, these natural organisms work together to ferment dough. During this fermentation process, a sourdough starter not only helps bread rise without the need for commercial yeast but also enhances flavor, improves digestibility, and helps keep baked goods fresher for longer. It’s a pretty incredible culture to bake with! –> WHAT EXACTLY IS SOURDOUGH? MORE INFORMATION HERE
Understanding the Sourdough Fermentation Cycle
Once you have your sourdough starter, maintaining it comes down to a simple cycle of feeding, rising, and falling. This process keeps the wild yeast and bacteria healthy and active.
How the Sourdough Cycle Works
- Feed your starter: Take a small amount of mature/ripe (or mildly overripe) starter and mix it with fresh flour and water.
- Mark the jar: Use a rubber band or piece of tape to mark the starter’s level in the jar—this helps you watch it rise and fall.
- Fermentation begins: The starter will rise as the yeast and bacteria consume the fresh flour and produce gas. It will fall once they run out of food.
- Discard and refresh: When the starter peaks or slightly over-ripens, you take a portion of the fermented starter out to feed again and discard the rest. This starts a new fermentation cycle.
Ingredients Needed to Feed a Sourdough Starter
- Sourdough Starter: This is your base culture—whether you made one from scratch using my easy guide, got one from a friend, or purchased it, this is what you’ll be feeding and maintaining.
- Flour: I typically use all-purpose or bread flour as my main flour. If my starter seems sluggish, I’ll mix in a little whole wheat or rye flour—both contain more nutrients and can give your starter a natural boost.
- Water: Most water works just fine, especially for an established starter. I use tap water with great results. Just make sure it’s free of chlorine or chloramine—if your tap water is heavily treated, you may want to let it sit out overnight or use filtered water.
Tools Needed to Feed a Sourdough Starter
To feed a sourdough starter, you just need a couple of tools:
- Clear Jar with a lid: A transparent jar lets you easily see bubbles and how much your starter has grown. Use a lid that isn’t airtight—this allows gases to escape without letting your starter dry out. A mason jar or a jar made specifically for sourdough works great.
- Kitchen Scale: I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale for feeding your starter. Weight measurements are far more accurate than volume, especially with sourdough’s high hydration levels. This helps ensure consistency and sets you up for success.
- Spatula or scraper: Use a spatula or scraper to mix your starter thoroughly and scrape down the sides of the jar. This keeps things tidy and makes it easier to monitor rise and bubbles.
- Rubber Band or Dry Erase Marker: Mark the starter’s level right after feeding to easily track how much it has risen. This is the best way to tell when your starter has doubled or peaked and is ready to use.
How to Feed a Sourdough Starter (Basic Method)
Here’s an example of how to feed a sourdough starter. The numbers can and will change based on how much starter you want and need for the recipes you are making. This is a simple 1:1:1 feeding that will show you the process:
- Take 50 grams of ripe or over-ripe sourdough starter. Place it in a jar (Image 1).
- Add 50 grams flour and 50 grams water (Image 2).
- Mix together until combined (Image 3).
- Scrape down the sides of the jar and mark with a rubber band or dry erase marker (Image 4). Cover with a loose-fitting lid or plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise.
Over the next few hours, the sourdough starter will rise until just about doubled (or tripled) in size. At that point, it has become active with many active yeast in the starter and is ready to be used in a recipe.
Sourdough Discard Tips
One key part of maintaining a sourdough starter is discarding excess starter and feeding only a small portion to make a new batch. This leftover portion, called sourdough discard, can be thrown away or used in recipes made just for discard.
Sure, you could feed all of the inactive starter to make it active again, but that often leads to way too much starter. Instead, we “discard” the extra we’re not feeding this time around. It also has the benefit of not carrying over too much acid, which can lead to a sluggish starter.
But here’s the good news: many bakers (like me!) hate wasting that discard, so we put it to good use in all kinds of delicious discard recipes. Sourdough discard is a byproduct of starter maintenance that I absolutely love using in quick bakes like muffins, crackers, pancakes, waffles, and more.
Keeping A Smaller Starter – No Sourdough Discard Method: You might decide to keep a smaller starter, which helps reduce discard in the first place. The size doesn’t matter much—you can always build more starter using basic ratios. Try this – grab a small jar, add 1–2 grams of starter, 20 grams of flour, and 20 grams of water. Mix and let it rise. Store it in the fridge until you’re ready to mix up a larger batch of starter to bake with.
My Favorite Sourdough Discard Recipes
Feeding Frequency
The more you feed your sourdough starter, the more active and strong it becomes. For a healthy, reliable starter, I like to feed it again before it completely falls back down in the fermentation cycle.
- Room Temperature: Feed daily, or even twice a day, depending on your baking schedule and how active you want your starter.
- Refrigerated: Feed once a week to keep your starter alive and ready to revive when needed.
Consistency is key. Regular feedings with the same flour-to-water ratio help build a strong, predictable starter you can count on.
What happens if you miss a feeding? Don’t worry—missing a feeding isn’t the end of the world! Just feed your starter as soon as you remember. It might look sluggish or smell extra sour, but with a little care, it’ll bounce right back.
How to Keep Your Starter Strong
A healthy starter makes good bread. It’s one of the most important parts of a great sourdough loaf. A strong, active starter should rise and fall predictably after each feeding.
To keep your starter strong:
- feed it consistently (at least once a week if stored in the fridge)
- keep it in a warm environment (76–80ºF is the sweet spot)
- use fresh flour and water
- avoid letting it sit too long without feeding, especially if it becomes very overripe
- adjust your feeding ratios as needed
If your starter seems sluggish, give it a few consistent room-temperature feedings to help build it back up to strong and active again.
Can you feed your starter too much? It’s very unlikely, but if your starter is kept warm and fed multiple times a day, it can become overly active. If this happens, try using cooler water and adjusting your feeding ratio so it takes longer to peak.
When is your Starter Ready to Use?
Your starter is ready when it has doubled in size, looks bubbly, and has just reached its peak before starting to fall back down.
For a full breakdown of each stage and exactly what to look for, read this guide: When Is Sourdough Starter Ready to Use
Signs to Look For When Sourdough Starter is Ready to Use
- Double or tripled in size
- Full of bubbles
- Domed top with starter just starting to fall back down
- Smells mildly milky sweet when it reaches peak height
- Rising and falling predictably
Fridge vs. Counter Storage
If you only bake once a week or want to keep things low-maintenance, storing your sourdough starter in the refrigerator is the way to go. Feed it just once a week, and it will stay healthy and ready when you need it.
Here’s how I use my refrigerated starter:
- I feed it using a 1:1:1 ratio (equal parts starter, flour, and water by weight).
- After feeding, I let it sit at room temperature until it has almost doubled and reached its peak.
- Then I store it in the refrigerator.
When I’m ready to bake, I check how long it’s been since my starter was last fed:
- If it’s been 24–48 hours since feeding and the starter still looks peaked, bubbly, and smells sweet and milky, I’ll use it straight from the fridge into my dough or use it to mix a levain for my dough. No need to warm it up first—just use warm water in the mixture to give it a boost.
- If it’s been longer than 48 hours or I just want to refresh my starter, I discard and feed it again. I don’t bother bringing it to room temperature—just use warm water to help kick-start fermentation. Then I let it rise until it’s nearly doubled and either:
- Use it in a recipe, or
- Stick it back in the fridge to maintain for another week.
This flexible routine keeps my starter strong and ready to go without needing daily attention. If you’re feeding your starter weekly, this method works beautifully. But if your starter has been sitting for longer or seems sluggish, just give it a couple of room-temperature feedings to revive it before baking.
How Much Should You Feed Your Starter?
The amount you feed your starter affects how quickly it becomes active and when it will be ready to use.
You can control this by adjusting:
- the amount of starter you keep (more starter = faster rise, less starter = slower rise)
- the temperature (warmer = faster fermentation, cooler = slower)
This gives you flexibility to make your starter ready when you need it, whether you’re baking the same day or planning ahead.
For example: I keep my sourdough starter around 78ºF as it is the sweet spot for wild yeast and bacteria to work together. If kept at that temperature:
- A 1:1:1 feeding (equal parts starter, flour, and water) will typically peak in about 3–4 hours, making it great for same-day baking.
- A 1:10:10 feeding (a small amount of starter with more fresh flour and water) will take longer to peak, around 10–12 hours, making it ideal for overnight use.
For a full breakdown of feeding ratios and a timing chart, read this guide:
Sourdough Starter Ratios
Feeding A Sourdough Starter Without A Scale
If you’re new to baking with sourdough, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale. Sourdough bread is a high-hydration dough (high liquid/water content), and most new bakers are still learning how it should feel and look. Using weight (grams) is much more accurate and gives you the best chance at success.
That said, if you’re using volume measurements, here are a few tips:
- Flour and water don’t weigh the same. Equal weights of flour and water are not equal in volume.
- A rough guideline is to feed 1/4 cup of starter with about 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour.
- Mix until you get a thick batter consistency—not too runny, not too stiff.
If you choose to feed by volume, just know you’ll need to pay closer attention and be ready to adjust as you go. Be flexible—sometimes you’ll need to add more flour or water to get the right texture in your starter or your dough.
Common Issues + Troubleshooting
When you’re just getting started with sourdough, it can be a little tricky to interpret what your starter is trying to tell you. Don’t worry—it’s normal to have questions! You can check out my full list of Frequently Asked Sourdough Questions, but here are answers to some of the most common issues:
Signs Your Sourdough Starter is Hungry
- It may have some bubbles but looks flat.
- It may have a runny texture and smell overly sour or vinegary.
- You might notice a layer of hooch (a thin, grayish liquid) on top.
What to do:
Feed it with fresh flour and water! A hungry starter just needs some nourishment to get back to rising strong. You may need to feed it a couple of times at room temperature to build strength.
Sourdough Starter is Bubbling But Not Rising
- Bubbles mean there is some microbial activity, but if it’s not rising, it could be:
- Too cold (move it to a warmer spot)
- Too thin (try a thicker consistency)
- Weak (needs more frequent feedings)
What to do:
Feed it at and keep it in a warm spot (around 76–78°F). Track it with a rubber band or marker to watch for growth. As soon as it rises to its peak height, feed it again and watch for more growth. If your starter is acting very sluggish, adding in some whole wheat or rye flour to your feeding can also help.
Sourdough Starter Smells Bad
- A healthy starter smells pleasantly tangy and milky sweet. If it smells overly acidic, it needs to be refreshed.
What to do:
Don’t panic—bad smells often come from neglect. Discard all but a small spoonful of starter, then feed with fresh flour and water. Repeat this for a few feedings until it’s active and smelling healthy again.
I Killed my Sourdough Starter!
The good news? You probably didn’t.
Starters are very resilient. Even if it looks flat, separated, or smells strong, chances are it just needs a few good feedings. If there’s mold (fuzzy, pink, or orange), then yes—toss it and start over. Otherwise, give it a chance to recover. A layer of black with liquid hooch at the top actually preserves your starter in the fridge – it is not mold!
Sourdough Starter Frequently Asked Questions
Sourdough starter can last indefinitely as long as there’s no mold. Storing it in the refrigerator helps preserve it—just feed it weekly to keep it healthy.
You can also dehydrate your starter as a backup, so you always have a way to revive it if needed.
You don’t have to stir your starter, but you can if you want to. Stirring helps redistribute the yeast and bacteria, which some bakers believe promotes more even fermentation. Others skip it entirely. Personally, I haven’t noticed much difference either way—do what works best for you!
Yes, you can keep your starter on the counter if you’re feeding it daily and baking often. If you’re not planning to use it for a while, it’s best to refrigerate it to slow down fermentation and reduce the need for frequent feedings.
It’s technically possible to overfeed a sourdough starter, but it’s not likely if you’re feeding it in reasonable amounts. Feeding too frequently without giving the yeast time to ferment can dilute your starter. That said, regular feeding generally makes your starter more active and healthy—just give it time between feedings to do its job.
You can, but it’s less predictable. An inactive starter or sourdough discard won’t have as much rising power, so your bread may not rise as high or as reliably as it would with a fully active starter. For best results, use discard in recipes that don’t rely on rise—take your pick from my popular sourdough discard recipes.
New to Sourdough?
Start with my step-by-step sourdough beginner guide, or try one of the beginner-friendly recipes below.
If you’re ready to focus on baking classic artisan-style sourdough bread, you can also explore my sourdough artisan bread guide for more in-depth techniques.
If you want everything laid out step by step, I’ve put it all together in my Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough Cookbook and my online sourdough course.
Beginner Sourdough Recipes
If you have a question or used any of these tips for Feeding and Maintaining a Sourdough Starter or any other recipe on my website leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Happy Baking!
How to Feed and Maintain A Sourdough Starter
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Equipment
- sourdough starter jar with lid any 16 oz jar will work with cover
- mixing tool or spatula
- rubber band or dry erase marker
Ingredients
- 50 grams sourdough starter, about 3 Tablespoons, ripe and active or over-ripe and needs feeding
- 50 grams all-purpose or bread flour, about 1/3 cup
- 50 grams water, about 3 Tablespoons
Instructions
- Take 50 grams of ripe or over-ripe sourdough starter. Place it in a jar. Add 50 grams water and 50 grams flour. Mix together until combined. Scrape down the edges and mark with a rubber band or dry erase marker so you can judge how much the starter has risen. Cover the jar with a loose fitting lid or plastic wrap and set in a warm 78ºF place to rise.Note: This recipe shows an example of a 1:1:1 feeding ratio. I recommend a minimum of equal weights of starter, flour and water be fed at any feeding. You can adjust the actual amounts to work for you.
- Over the next few hours, the sourdough starter will go through a fermentation cycle where it will begin to rise. Once it has at least doubled in size and reaches a peak height, it will be very bubbly throughout and smell milky sweet. If your starter is being kept around 78ºF, it will be peaked and active in about 3-4 hours. At this point the starter is ripe, active and ready to be used in a sourdough recipe.
- If you do nothing to it, the starter will continue through the fermentation cycle and will fall back down. It will become runny and will need to be re-fed to be used as active starter again. Discard (throw away or store in the refrigerator to use in a discard recipe) 100 grams of the starter. Feed the remaining 50 grams of over-ripe starter with 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour to begin the cycle again.
- Continue this cycle of feeding and then discarding the sourdough starter to keep your starter active and strong. You can re-feed the starter any time as it falls back down. At a minimum, once the starter has completed the fermentation cycle, it should be fed again. I find it helpful to change my feeding ratio, alter the temperature, and use my refrigerator to make a sourdough starter work for me (see recipe notes for more information).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Amy,
I am very new to this. I was gifted a starter. It is now refrigerated. I plan to remove 60 grams tonight and add water and flour in 1:1:1 ratio and leave it out until tomorrow morning and will then bake bread. With the refrigerated starter, do I feed it tonight, or can I wait a few days. I would like to bake once weekly and my intentions are to feed once weekly. But if I decide to bake more often, do I feed each time I remove from the refrigerated starter.
Feeding each time you bake is going to give you best results – especially if you are on a weekly maintenance schedule. If your starter is bubbly and active and in the fridge, you can use it in a recipe, but I only like to do that if it’s been in the fridge about 24-48 hours. The longer it goes without a feeding, the less active and more sluggish the starter can become. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done, just that you will have a few more variables to content with. I hope that helps!
Hi Amy,
When maintaining a starter that is kept in the fridge between bakes, should some always be discarded at the onset of feeding? if I want to keep only 100gms of starter, then discard whatever amount is in the jar to about 35gms and add the same amounts of flour and water? or if I want to strengthen the starter I can use a 1:2:2 ratio? and still 100% hydration since adding the same amounts of flour and water?
I think this is correct but sometimes confuse myself!
Thankyou
🙂 Mary
If you are using up most of your starter for baking, you may only have a little bit left to feed and that works fine to do it that way. You don’t HAVE to “discard” but if you don’t use the excess, then you won’t want to keep feeding it or else you will end up with too much starter. And yes, you can choose how you want to feed your starter and what ratio you want it to be. I often switch up my feeding ratios – https://amybakesbread.com/sourdough-starter-ratios/ to strengthen my starter and fit it into my schedule. I hope that helps!
Yes, it does. I’m trying to maintain a smaller starter amount – I may not have a lot for discard recipes but that’s ok.
Mary
Glad it’s helpful!
Amy I have a question..
If you are making multiple loafs of bread, (5) and you need (example) 50 grams of starter for each loaf, how would you feed your starter to have enough starter?
If you need 50 grams of starter for each loaf, you’ll want 250 grams total of starter. So I would take 50 grams of starter and feed it 120 grams flour and 120 grams water. That will add up to a little over 250 grams of starter once it ferments. You lose a little bit of the weight of the starter during the fermentation process and I always like to have a little extra to feed if needed. Basically you just scale the recipe up or down by adding more flour and more water to starter and giving it more time to ferment. You can read more about that here: https://amybakesbread.com/sourdough-starter-ratios/
Thank you so much for all this information.
I have been struggling with how to feed my starter and this helps a ton.
I’m glad it’s helpful!
Amy,
I’m going on vacation for a week…My starter is just now beginning to really show growth, but not quite ready to use….OK to store in fridge and start up when I return? I read that you should “feed it well” before you leave. Can you tell me what that means? I’m following your day by day feeding schedule.
I think the fridge is your best option. Usually that feed it well is in terms of an established starter – give it a good feeding by feeding flour/water and letting it rise most of the way before refrigerating it. A starter that is just getting started is a little more fragile, but because it’s showing growth, it should hopefully be okay. I would feed it like you usually do and when it starts to grow, stick it in the refrigerator. When you get back, pull it back out and continue with the process. You may need to add a couple days to the process when you get back to get it back on track.
Hi, Amy,
I have a question. In making a levain, I do the 1:5:5 ratio – but I haven’t seen the strength I’m used to seeing. So I split the flour – half all-purpose and half rye flour – which really makes a robust starter. My question – it took 10 hours for that to triple in volume. Do I need to wait until that time – when it’s peaking – or can I (or should I) use it, say, after it doubles? Great site – I’ve bookmarked it and registered for the emails. Thank you!!
You want to use your starter right after it peaks, so if yours is tripling, you’ll want to use it at that tripled height. When a 1:5:5 ratio peaks is going to depend a lot on the activity (how frequently you feed) of your starter and the temperature. If your starter is used to colder temperatures, a 1:5:5 will take a lot longer to rise unless you find a way to warm it up. A couple feedings right after your starter has peaked can also help it increase its activity. Let me know if that helps or if you have other questions.
Bingo! That’s what I needed. I was thinking I should use it a little before peak so there was some lift left in the tank for the hours of folding and rising yet to happen. But you answered my question. Thank you so much for taking the time!
Hi, Amy
After taking some starter to make a levain, should the remaining starter always be fed, and then put in the fridge? What ratio do you suggest if baking once a week
Thanks!
Yes. I do like to do that to keep my starter active and healthy. I feed my starter, then let it rise until almost doubled and stick in the fridge. I would do this based on your own schedule. This article on starter ratios can help: https://amybakesbread.com/sourdough-starter-ratios/
Thanks Amy! I’m learning so much from your reels! 😊
Glad they are helpful!
I mill my own flour from hard red wheat berries. Is it possible to make a successful sourdough starter using only whole wheat flour? If so, is it a simple 1:1 feeding for building and maintaining? Thank you!
You can use whole wheat flour that you mill to make a sourdough starter. I would follow these instructions: https://amybakesbread.com/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/. Keep in mind if you are using all whole wheat it’s probably not going to rise as high as a starter fed with all-purpose or bread flour. It should also ferment faster and develop faster.
Amy, I have started a sour dough starter and it’s not doing anything?
Make sure you are keeping it warm and using some whole wheat and rye flour. The process can take time, so be patient with it. It is not un-common to take 2-3 weeks until it is rising predictably.
Hi Amy,
Thank you for replying to this question. If after I feed my starter 1:1:1 then almost doubled and place in fridge how does it “stay peaked and bubbly”. Wouldn’t it stop in the fridge. I read this in “how to use a refrigerated starter”.
thank you
The refrigerator pauses fermentation – but not forever. It still continues through the fermentation cycle, just much more slowly. So it stays peaked and bubbly (depending on the feeding ratio) for a few hours up to a day or so. You can use it in a recipe or use it to make a levain in this state.