It is important that you stir the sourdough starter every day in the morning and in the evening. Feed the starter. Add 60 g flour and 60 g lukewarm water, stir well to combine, and let sit out for 24 hours.
stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.
Place the container in a warm location, ideally between 75-85°F (24-29°C) for 24 hours. DAY 2: Give the starter a stir to help incorporate a little air. Cover the jar and let it rest for another 24 hours in a warm spot.
The hooch that forms on a starter can either be poured off or stirred back in. If you are removing it, then the same amount of water will need to be added back to your starter to compensate for the loss of hydration.
Mix until smooth, return to its jar or crock, and cover. Repeat this process every 12 hours, feeding the starter twice a day.
Room-temperature starter should be fed every 12 hours (twice a day) using the standard maintenance feeding procedure: discard all but 113g, and feed that 113g starter with 113g each water and flour.
You must discard some of your sourdough starter each time you feed it. You'll discover that discarding is necessary to build a healthy and thriving sourdough starter - but it's not actually as wasteful as you might think.
Yes, you can overfeed your sourdough starter. Audrey explains: “Every time you add more flour and water, you are depleting the existing population of natural bacteria and yeast.” If you keep adding more and more, eventually you'll dilute the starter so much that you'll just have flour and water.
If your sourdough starter forms hooch, mix the hooch back into the starter before you discard and feed. The only time I would consider pouring the hooch off your sourdough starter is if it has been stored in the fridge for a long time and the hooch is very dark.
The rule of any kitchen is “When in doubt, throw it out,” but I wouldn't panic and toss your starter if you only missed 1-3 days of feeding. If it's more than 3 days AND you have a warm kitchen, you'll have to make the call based on how well you know your starter.
Just a note here - it is normal for a sourdough starter to be stiffer when you first feed it and then thin out a little as it ferments. It should however be mousse like and aerated when it peaks. It may become runnier if you then don't feed it and let it go back down.
If your starter is in a warmer environment and you're feeding it right, day 4 will be the day you'll see signs of activity – if you haven't already on the last two days. There will be lots of bubbles, both on top of your sourdough starter as well some visible on the sides.
As part of the feeding process, most bakers discard some of their sourdough starter before adding fresh flour and water to the jar. This is done to refresh the acidity levels (think sweet vs. sour smell) and to manage its overall growth in size. This technique is crucial for successful sourdough bread.
Things that WON'T kill your sourdough starter
METAL: Stirring your starter with a metal spoon or placing it in a metal bowl won't kill your starter. While we don't recommend making or keeping your starter in contact with reactive metals like copper or aluminum, stainless steel is harmless.
You most definitely can bulk ferment sourdough too long. If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, it will become "over fermented". Over fermented dough will lose its structure and become a soupy, sloppy mess that you will not be able to shape.
To revive your old sourdough starter (or make starter more active), try feeding it with half regular flour (bread flour or all-purpose) and half wheat or rye flour. Rye seems to make sourdough starter especially bubbly! Your starter may be cold. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature where the starter is stored.
In sourdough, hooch is a light liquid that is thrown off by a sourdough starter. Since sourdough starters have yeast in them, and since yeast produces alcohol, there is some alcohol in hooch, but you have to be pretty hard up for a drink to even consider drinking hooch.
In our experience, we've found that if you're leaving for over a week, it's best to discard your sourdough starter and start again with the process of making a sourdough starter.
Say you are going to use your starter to make pancakes every morning, or english muffins or french toast. You can leave your starter out on your counter and just feed it every 12-24 hours. I do not use my starter every day.
The oldest known sourdough starter is said to have originated from clay pots unearthed in Egypt. Seamus Blackley baked a loaf of sourdough bread using yeast harvested from 4500 year old clay pots. If you want to read more about this 4500 year old sourdough starter, go here.
Discard will keep for about 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator. At this point, it may start to develop a grey liquid on top (hooch) and will be more acidic giving any baked good an intense tangy flavor. Freezer: I personally have not tried this method but some do freeze their starter discard.
The discard is just the sourdough starter you're not currently feeding or baking with. It's called discard because it often gets "discarded" during feeding. If you don't "discard" some starter during feeding your starter will just grow and grow and grow until you're staring in a remake of The Blob.
Generally a starter can stay at room temperature without feeding for a maximum of 3 days. After that you will need to give the starter few feedings before you can use it again. This is because it will become less strong and it will need time and food to become strong again.
The very short answer is, your sourdough starter generally will be at its peak anything between 4 and 12 hours after feeding. The optimum time to use it will be when there are lots of bubbles at its surface and it has has physically risen to its peak level, just before deflating back down again.