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
Milling your own flour is the deepest rabbit hole in bread baking — and one of the most rewarding. Fresh flour smells sweet and nutty in a way bagged flour never does, and it carries flavour and nutrition that’s lost within days of milling commercially. The catch is that it behaves like a different ingredient, so a few adjustments make the difference between a revelation and a dense disappointment.
Why mill your own?
Store-bought flour is milled and then usually stripped of the germ so it can sit on a shelf for months. Home milling keeps the whole grain intact.
Choosing a mill
Two main types dominate home kitchens, and both can make flour fine enough for bread.
Choosing your grain
The berry you buy decides the bread you get. For strong, well-risen loaves you want hard, high-protein wheat.
Buy whole berries from a mill or homebrew/baking supplier, store them dry, and mill only what you need for a bake. Soft wheat is for cakes and pastry — it won’t build the gluten a loaf needs.
Related calculator
Bread Flour Cups to Grams Converter
Convert cups of bread flour, all-purpose, whole wheat, water, and more to grams — and back — with standard baking weights.
Baking with fresh flour
Fresh whole-grain flour is thirstier and livelier than bagged white flour. Two adjustments cover most of it.
- 1Raise the hydration The intact bran absorbs a lot of water. Add more water than your white-flour recipe calls for, and rest the dough so the bran can fully hydrate.
- 2Shorten the bulk The active bran and germ ferment fast — watch for a 30–50% rise rather than a doubling, and don't leave it as long as a white loaf.
- 3Handle gently Whole-grain dough has more bran cutting the gluten, so build strength with folds rather than aggressive kneading.
- 4Expect a denser crumb A 100% fresh-milled loaf is naturally tighter than white. Sifting (next) lightens it if you want more lift.
Free Sourdough Baking Playbook (printable PDF)
A printable PDF companion for the sourdough calculators and guides.
Sifting for lighter loaves
If you want a loaf closer to white bread but with fresh-flour flavour, sift out some of the bran. Pass the milled flour through a fine sieve or bolting cloth and set aside the coarse bran that stays behind — what passes through is a higher-extraction “white” flour that rises taller with a more open crumb. Sift out more for a lighter loaf, less for a heartier one. Save the reserved bran to add to another bake, sprinkle on crusts, or stir into porridge.
Storing fresh flour & berries
Watch for
- Fresh flour goes rancid within days to weeks at room temperature — the germ oils oxidise
- For best flavour, mill just before you bake
- Store leftover flour airtight in the fridge (weeks) or freezer (months)
- Let chilled or frozen flour warm to room temperature before mixing
- Whole berries keep for a year or more stored cool, dry, and airtight
Whole wheat berries are shelf-stable, so the simplest routine is to store berries, not flour, and mill fresh each bake. That way you always get peak flavour and never lose a batch of flour to rancidity.
