Keeping it alive
Once your starter is established it is remarkably hard to kill. Pick the routine that matches how often you actually bake, not the one that sounds most virtuous.
The default feed: 1:3:3
20 g starter · 60 g flour · 60 g water. Weigh 20 g of ripe starter into a clean jar, add the flour and water, stir until there are no dry bits, and rest the lid on loosely so gas can get out but nothing can get in. Everything left in the old jar is discard.
There is no single correct ratio. Anywhere between 1:3:3 and 1:5:5 once a day produces a strong, healthy starter in most kitchens. 1:3:3 is the one to start with.
If you bake most weeks: the fridge
This is what most people should do.
- Feed at your usual ratio - 20 g starter, 60 g flour, 60 g water.
- Leave it at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours so fermentation gets going before it goes cold.
- Cover loosely and put it in the fridge.
- Feed it once a week, the same way, whether or not you are baking. That weekly refresh is what keeps it healthy rather than merely alive.
A plain 1:1:1 weekly feed - 25 g starter, 25 g flour, 25 g water - is perfectly fine for a fridge starter too, and it is what the card in your flake packet says, because it keeps the numbers the same as the revival. In the cold it makes very little difference. Use whichever you will actually remember.
Waking it up before a bake
- Take it out 1 to 2 days before you want to mix dough and let it come to room temperature.
- Discard down to about 20 g and feed at 1:3:3 or 1:5:5.
- Feed again every 12 to 24 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is, until it is bubbly and doubles predictably. Two or three feeds usually does it.
A starter that has been forgotten in the fridge for a month will look grey and smell aggressive, and will almost always come back after three or four feeds. Give it more time than you think it needs before writing it off.
If you bake constantly: the counter
Keep it at room temperature and feed at 1:3:3.
- 20-21 °C (68-70 °F) - once a day is usually plenty.
- 24-26 °C (76-78 °F) - it will run through its cycle faster and may want feeding twice a day.
When to feed
Feed when the starter has peaked, or has just started to fall - the dome has flattened or cracked, the surface bubbles have gone slack, the level is no longer climbing. That is the moment the yeast has eaten its food.
Leaving it long after a full collapse, feed after feed, weakens the culture over time. One late feed does no harm at all; a habit of them does.
Mark the level on the jar at each feed with a rubber band. You will learn your own starter's timing within a week, and that is worth more than anyone else's suggested hours.
Feeding ratios, and why you would change them
The three numbers describe starter : flour : water by weight.
| Ratio | Example | Peaks in | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:1:1 | 25 g + 25 g + 25 g | 4-6 h | reviving flakes, or feeding again within a few hours |
| 1:3:3 | 20 g + 60 g + 60 g | 6-10 h | everyday maintenance |
| 1:5:5 | 20 g + 100 g + 100 g | 10-14 h | feeding overnight before a bake, or calming a very sour starter |
On a narrow screen this table scrolls sideways.
A bigger ratio means more food per yeast cell, so it takes longer to peak and ends up milder. A smaller ratio peaks fast and tastes sharper. That is the whole trick to controlling sourness.
Ready to bake with
Your starter is strong enough for bread when it:
- doubles or triples after a feed, and does it again tomorrow
- is full of bubbles all the way through, not just on top
- smells pleasantly tangy rather than harsh
- passes the float test - a spoonful dropped into water floats
The float test is a handy quick check but not proof on its own. Trust the rise.
About discard
Discarding is not waste, it is the method. Removing most of the old culture before each feed is what stops the jar getting steadily more acidic, which is what would otherwise wear the yeast down.
Keep a separate jar in the fridge and tip your discard into it. It will happily sit there for a couple of weeks and makes very good pancakes and crackers. Or bin it. Both are fine.
Note the difference between discard and collapsed starter. If you feed your starter and then do not use it, after several hours it deflates and goes inactive - at that point it is discard, and you start the cycle again with a fresh feed.
Going away
- Up to a month: feed it, refrigerate it, leave it. It will be fine.
- Longer: dry some flakes before you go. See pass it on - the same process that got the flakes to you. Dried starter keeps for years in a cupboard and is your insurance policy.
Hydration, if you are curious
Equal weights of flour and water make a 100% hydration starter, which is the standard and what everything on this site assumes. It should look like thick batter. A wetter starter is runnier and ferments faster; a stiffer one keeps longer between feeds. There is no reason to complicate your life yet.
Small habits that help
- Scrape the sides of the jar down after feeding, so you can see the true level.
- Keep a rubber band at the level of each fresh feed. It turns the jar into a gauge.
- Wash the jar every couple of weeks. Dried crust on the rim is where mould starts.
- Keep a small backup jar in the fridge, or a bag of dried flakes, so one bad week never costs you the culture.