Sourdough, an age-old technique originating from ancient times, involves harnessing wild yeasts and bacteria present in the air and flour. This natural process is utilized to ferment and raise various types of bread and baked treats to delightful perfection.

Sourdough bread is known for its unique flavor profile, which is a result of the fermentation process involving naturally occurring bacteria and yeast. This type of bread boasts a distinctively tangy taste, setting it apart from conventional breads leavened with baker's yeast. The presence of lactic acid, a byproduct of fermentation, not only contributes to its signature sourness but also enhances its shelf life compared to other bread varieties.

You can use any flour you have access to for any sourdough starter culture. If you want to keep a “pure” culture for when flours are abundant again, use half of your packet now to activate the culture and store the rest in the freezer for later.

Nope, you’re good. Sometimes they are hungry and don’t bubble (usually there will also be hooch). Other times, it didn’t feel like being bubbly that day for reasons we don’t get to know about. Other times, it simply wants for more aeration. The first thing I do when this happens, and especially if it’s an “all white starter” (baking term for made and maintained with all-purpose flour), is to sit myself and the starter down in front of the TV and I will stir or whisk it for 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I get lost in the show and go longer. This method, though, will get it bubbling nearly every time!

Sourdough cultures love warmth. The ideal temperature is between 70-78 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything colder than 70 and the culture will be sluggish and anything warmer than 85 could result in the death of the sourdough culture.

This is called HOOCH and it’s quite natural. This usually means your starter is hungry. Just pour it off before feeding to avoid any off flavors, and make sure to have a consistent feeding schedule. Some of you might want a more sour sourdough, so if that’s you, just stir that hooch right back in!

Absolutely! However, using an already established sourdough starter will provide more consistent results. Making your own from scratch, relying solely on the yeasts and bacteria in the environment is hit and miss: especially when it comes to taste! A sourdough starter that has been around the block a few times has a flavor profile that has been proven to be tasty with consistent baking results.

It’s generally recommended to keep a distance of approximately 4-5 feet in between ferments to avoid cross contamination.

If you are storing your ferments in the fridge temporarily, use a tight fitting airtight lid.

If you need more starter than you currently have, just keep building it up by not removing any starter prior to feeding and feed the starter an equal 1:1:1 ratio until you have the amount you need. It builds quite quickly. Most recipes for a loaf or two call for 60-100 grams of starter. Make sure to leave enough to make your next batch of starter!

This can happen if you neglect your starter, but don’t despair: you can probably save your starter. First off, if it smells like nail polish remover or acetone, it’s simply hungry. Feed the starter. If it smells more like farts or something equally pungent, that means it's far past the point of hungry and its STARVING and/or contaminated. You can try feeding it for a few cycles to see if that fixes it right up. If the smell doesn’t go away after a few consecutive feeding it’s probably dead or not worth saving. The best thing to do is to start over with a new culture. Your starter should smell slightly yeasty/slightly sour

One note: the oat flour sourdough starter is always stinky. Really. We’re sorry. The starter is great and we don’t know why it smells so bad, but woah it does. 

When your starter has doubled or tripled in volume, it’s ready to use. Ideally, you should see this around 4 hours after the last feeding. Alternatively, you can do the float test (sounds like swimming lessons, doesn’t it?). To run the float test, fill a glass with water and place a spoonful of starter on the surface of the water. If it sinks, it’s not ready and needs to ferment longer. If it floats, it boats! CO2 is a byproduct of fermentation, and it’s this C02 that gets trapped inside the starter and causes it to float. This is also why your dough rises!

All of that said, we’ve seen the float test fail with vigorous starters that went about their day to produce beautiful loaves anyway. We’ve also seen float tests fail because the starter legit wasn’t ready to bread yet. So if your float test fails and you just need to bake omgrightnow, tell yourself it was fun bathing your pet and go ahead and bake anyway. Worst that happens is the loaf wasn’t as tall as you wanted, yeah? When that happens, it’s oil, salt, and pepper time to dip it in!! Or maybe you have some lovely bread pudding in your future instead? Hmm…

You should be feeding your starter daily. Schedules can be anywhere from every 24 hours to every 8-12 hours depending on how often you decide to bake bread. If you cannot feed your starter daily, you can feed the culture with the 1:1:1 ratio, let sit for an hour on the counter or top of your fridge, and then place in the fridge. By doing this, you can stretch your feeding to once weekly and when you decide its time to bake, then simply take out desired amount of starter and weigh it. Feed it its weight in equal parts water and flour. For example: 100 grams of starter will need to be fed 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour. Let ferment for 5-8 hours and use in recipe.

Sourdough cultures are very resilient and can take quite a bit of neglect. If the culture hasn’t been fed in quite a while there will likely be pooled hooch floating on the top. Just pour it off and let the starter sit on the counter until it comes to room temperature. Feed it every 8-12 hours until you see signs of fermentation (doubles in size or air bubbles). If there aren’t any signs of life the starter, may need to be replaced with a new culture.

Excessive heat is fatal to sourdough cultures. The only way to know if your culture is alive is to continue to feed it. If there are signs of activity or air bubbles, bullet dodged! If there are no signs of fermentation after a few consecutive feedings, the culture is most likely dead and you will need to start over with a new culture.

To avoid this potential disaster next time, tie a red or other bright colored scarf or dish towel to the oven handle to signify precious cargo inside. Some of us will tape a note on the knob that turns the oven on, because we’ve noticed that occasionally, people just don’t notice the proverbial tie on the door knob. 

Lastly, make sure your oven doesn’t go above 85 with the light on. If you don’t have a thermometer to check, don’t risk it.

It can become overwhelming quickly if you are religiously feeding your sourdough cultures but not actually using it. One can only make so much bread. How much bread? Not sure yet because neighbors and friends haven’t started complaining. We’ll let you know when we find out, though. Thankfully, sourdough’s uses are not limited to baking bread. Its uses are endless! From sourdough pancakes, waffles, crepes, tortillas, muffins, cakes, donuts, bagels, pretzels, English muffins, and a whole lot more. You can even brew beer with it - just use starter when you pitch your yeast instead of whatever packet (and don’t forget to save the leavings for a loaf of bread later: you’ll be shocked by its rise!)! Check out our blog for upcoming sourdough starter recipes.

Under normal circumstances, a healthy sourdough culture being either partially or fully frozen shouldn’t harm your sourdough culture. However if it's been awhile since it’s been fed or has been neglected it may take some effort to revive it. First you will need to defrost it. Once defrosted, feed it back to back every 8 hours until bubbly. It is possible that uh… a single member of our team has forgotten a sourdough in the frozen part of the fridge for months a time or two and still managed to revive it. We’re not saying this has really happened, but it might have. If the culture doesn’t bubble after a few feedings, it’s likely that you’ll need to scrap it and start over with a new culture. But we’d say give it a few days to make sure, and make sure to discard half of the reviving culture before each feeding to give it a better chance at renewed vigor. You can stick that discard in brownie batter, if you like

The difference between sourdough starter varieties basically boils down to location, bacteria, and yeasts. For example, San Francisco sourdough starter contains Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, which is a bacteria unique to San Francisco. Different bacteria and yeast give each variety a distinct taste and level of sourness.

To convert a commercial yeast recipe to sourdough, standard formula for volume is 1 cup active 100% hydration starter = 1 packet of yeast + 3/4 cup flour + 1/2 cup water

For weights, subtract half of the weight of the starter you’re going to use from each the fluid and flour of your recipe, and ignore the yeast it asks you to add.

Gluten free starter does not respond well to long term storage. If you do decide to store it long term, just know that it will need some extra TLC and patience.