Sourdough Starter Manager
Log each feed, watch your starter rise in a 3D jar and record when it peaks. After two feeds it learns your own starter’s timing, so you know when it will be ready.
- See the rise against the clock
- Learns your starter’s peak time
- Free, no account needed
Making a sourdough starter from scratch is mostly patience. You mix flour and water, feed it a little every day, and over a week or two wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria from the flour and the air colonise it into a living culture that can leaven bread. No commercial yeast, no special equipment — just a jar and a routine.
What you need
The whole project fits on a shelf. There’s nothing to buy beyond flour.
Which flour, and when. Flour names differ by country, so here is what to look for:
| Flour (US · UK/AU name) | Use it for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Whole rye · wholemeal rye | Days 1–4 | The quickest way to get fermentation going: bran and nutrients feed the young culture |
| Whole wheat · wholemeal | Days 1–4, or ongoing | Almost as lively as rye and easy to find |
| Bread flour · strong white | From about day 4, and for keeping it fed | Milder, cleaner rise once the yeast has taken hold |
| All-purpose · plain | Feeding once established | Works, a little less vigorous than bread flour |
| Gluten-free flours | A gluten-free starter | Follow the gluten-free starter guide; the method changes |
Bleached and self-raising flours are not good choices for a new starter. If a white-flour starter goes sluggish, a spoonful of rye or wholemeal in the next feed usually wakes it up.
Cover the jar loosely — a lid resting on top, or a cloth and rubber band. The culture needs to breathe and to vent gas, so don’t seal it airtight.
Day 1: mix the first batch
Weigh 50g whole-grain flour and 50g room-temperature water into the jar and stir to a thick, lump-free paste. Scrape down the sides, mark the level with a rubber band or a strip of tape, and set it somewhere warm.
Warmth is the single biggest lever you have. Aim for 75–82°F (24–28°C) — on top of the fridge, near (not on) a radiator, or in an oven with only the light on. A cold kitchen doesn’t stop a starter, it just makes everything take longer. Then leave it 24 hours; nothing much happens on day 1.
The daily rhythm: discard and feed
From day 2 onward you repeat one simple cycle once a day, at roughly the same time.
- 1Discard most of it Stir the starter down, then keep only about 50g and remove the rest. This feels wasteful but it is essential — it keeps the acid load low so the yeast can thrive.
- 2Feed 1:1:1 by weight To the 50g you kept, add 50g flour and 50g water. That is a 1:1:1 ratio — equal parts starter, flour, and water. Stir smooth.
- 3Mark and wait Reset the rubber band to the new level so you can see how far it rises, re-cover loosely, and leave it warm for 24 hours.
Around day 3–4, once you see any bubbling, switch to feeding twice a day (morning and evening) to build strength faster. You can move from whole-grain to bread or all-purpose flour now, or keep 10–20% whole grain in each feed for a livelier culture. Save your discard for pancakes, waffles, or crackers rather than binning it.
The day-by-day timeline
Every starter is different, but most healthy ones move through the same three stages. These windows assume a warm spot around 75–80°F / 24–27°C — a cooler room shifts everything later.
The most useful thing to know in advance is that progress is not a straight line. A dramatic early rise is followed by a discouraging quiet spell, and then the real culture arrives. Knowing the slump is coming is what stops most people from throwing a perfectly good starter away.
Related calculator
Sourdough Starter Feeding Calculator
Exact starter, flour, water, and discard for 1:1:1, 1:5:5, or any custom feeding ratio, with a ratio chart and peak times.
Day 2–4: the false rise (don't be fooled)
Somewhere around day 2 or 3 your starter may erupt — bubbling, tripling, foaming, smelling sweet or faintly cabbage-like. It looks ready. It isn’t.
That burst is Leuconostoc and other bacteria that briefly bloom in fresh flour. They give off gas, so the mix rises, but they aren’t the wild yeast that leavens bread — and they die back as the culture turns more acidic. The tells that it’s a false rise, not the real thing:
Do nothing special — just carry on with your normal feeds. Keep it warm, feed 1:1:1 twice a day, and let the false rise pass.
Free Sourdough Baking Playbook (printable PDF)
A printable PDF companion for the sourdough calculators and guides.
Day 4–8: the quiet phase
After the false rise dies down, most starters go quiet — little or no rising, sometimes for several days. This is the single most common point at which beginners give up, and it’s almost always a mistake. The yeast is establishing itself in the background; the lull is a stage, not a failure.
Keep feeding on schedule and hold the temperature up. If a week passes with genuinely no bubbles at all, treat it as sluggish rather than dead:
Watch for
- Too cold — move it somewhere warmer; a few degrees can add days to the timeline
- Feeding too little — go to twice-daily 1:1:1 feeds for a few days
- White flour only — add a spoonful of rye or whole wheat to reboot it
- Chlorinated water — switch to filtered or de-chlorinated water
Signs it's ready to bake with
The real culture announces itself with predictable rising: after each feed the starter climbs and, within a few hours, roughly doubles and domes at the top. When you see that happening reliably, run a quick confirmation:
A quick float test can back this up: drop a small spoonful into water and, if it’s gassy enough, it floats. Treat it as a bonus signal, not the deciding one — consistent doubling is the real test. For the full checklist of what “active” looks like, see the active starter guide.
Keeping it alive once it's established
Once your starter passes the three-feed test, you don’t have to feed it twice a day forever. If you bake often, keep it on the counter and feed once daily. If you bake weekly or less, store it in the fridge and feed just once a week — the cold slows it to a dormant, low-maintenance state.
To bake from a fridge starter, take it out a day ahead, give it one or two feeds at room temperature, and wait for it to peak. From here on, the only real skill is feeding it the right amount at the right ratio. Once it is established, the sourdough starter manager helps you learn when it peaks.
What to do after the first active days
An early burst of bubbles is not the same as an established baking culture. Keep the routine consistent and watch whether activity repeats after feeds. If the starter goes quiet, record the temperature and feeding interval before restarting unnecessarily. If it develops mold or pink/orange changes, follow the discard guidance instead.
Once the culture is performing predictably, build the recipe quantity separately with the feeding calculator or levain tool. Keep a maintenance portion so one bread bake does not empty the jar. If you are not baking frequently, move to an intentional storage routine.
Adding commercial yeast creates a different culture/process and does not demonstrate that a wild starter has matured. Choose a yeast-leavened recipe if you need bread before your starter is ready; do not keep accelerating the feeding cycle simply to meet a calendar date.
