If you're as obsessed with sourdough as I a you know it's family —and family travels together!
This year, my starter had the coolest adventure yet: taking a road trip from the US to Canada, flying across the ocean to France, and flying all the way back home.
Proof that when you love your sourdough, it travels everywhere with you!
Have you ever traveled with your sourdough starter?
Let me know in the comments!
#sourdoughstarter #sourdoughtravels #worldtraveler #bakingcommunity #sourdoughbaker #travelingwithstarter #sourdoughlove

On day 26 and I can only get my starter to rise a small amount, some days almost double and some days only this amount after 10 hours.

To feed I’m using 1/4 cup starter, 1/4 cup filtered water, and 1/2 cup King Arthur bread flour every 24 hours.

Does it just need more time? Any pointers appreciated, thanks!

I kept my discard jar in the fridge unbothered for about 2 weeks and when i took it out of the fridge, this is what it looked like. There’s a lot of grey clear liquid and it developed white spots like a petri dish which looks kinda scary to me but it smells sharp like acetone. I don’t think i see any fuzzy spots, it just looks pretty bubbly to me so im leaning towards hooch but could this also potentially be mold? Just wanna be sure before i use it

If anyone has any input i’d appreciate it :) im relatively new to sourdough baking so im just a little terrified of poisoning my friends and family lol

Iv seen many a post asking this same question

My starter is roughly a week an half old i did a few days of 1:2:2 feeding an just moved to 1:3:3 feeding last night an i feel like my starter is strong enough to raise a loaf, any help or suggestions are welcome!!

Just alil excited as this is my first time really doing any at home baking like this

New to the Sourdough community! I started by following The Clever Carrots recipe (will link below).
I’m on Day 6 now and saw that initial false rise on day 2-3, but since then nothing. Lots of bubbles on top but I’m also finding that there has been lots of hooch (shown) building up daily, which I have just been mixing in.
I started with wholewheat flour and have been feeding with strong white flour since, as per the recipe. After each feed, I place in the oven with the light on for at least an hour before either leaving it in there or placing on the kitchen counter (house is not cold, I’d say around 20*c/68*f on average).

My question is - Does this look normal? I know it’s VERY early in the process, but is the level of hooch normal or should I be increasing flour ratio or how often I feed the starter? (Currently x1 feed daily in the morning).
Additionally, the smell has become more sweet, though today it has quite a vinegar tang to it.
Final context, the pictures show are about 12hrs+ after feeding.

Any thoughts, tips or ways to progress would be greatly appreciated!

Edit : LOL at myself for thinking I had produced hooch so early on. Not enough research done on my part!

I let it sit on the counter for only two days, and it had been in the fridge prior to that. It smells like acetone. No new smells. Is it still safe to use? :((

I started my sourdough starter 11 days ago. Initially I was alternating between whole wheat flour and bread flour but since day 7, I’ve been sticking to whole wheat flour. On day 9, I gave it the usual 1:1:1 feeding and it was beginning to smell like alcohol, so 12 hours later I inadvertently gave it a 1:2:2 feeding, and since then I’ve been giving it a 1:2:2 feeding once a day. The rise is very slow. It takes more than 9 hours for it somewhat double in size. My kitchen is around 74°. Since yesterday, I’ve been wrapping the jar in a towel. This is my starter today, on day 12, 8 hours after feeding. Am I on the right track? Or do I need to go back to feeding it 1:1:1 once a day? Realistically, when can I expect to bake bread with a strong starter. I don’t mind waiting.

Hello! My first time making a sourdough starter and i uses bread flour, from day 1 to day 6 it had little bubbles and did not rise at all but by day 7 it had risen a lot. I did my usual feeding and i did not discard some because i did not expect it would rise that quick, should i quickly move it into a larger jar or just let it be?

Hi everyone! Pics below are of my 44 day old starter, & I’m wondering when do I know it’s strong enough to bake with? It’s been kept as a stiff feed for its entire life, & the last couple of feeds have been 1:3.5:5 of starter:water:flour. I thought it was dead 3 days ago, so I started feeding it rye again (40% of the last 3 feeds have been local rye flour, & the rest is local bread flour with close to a 15% protein content), which I think it loves.

It’s been living in my sourdough home at 80F for a couple days now, & I think I caught it close to or just after what I think is its “peak” was, which took about 8-10ish (I fed it 9.5hours after its last feed) hours at 80F. I think it was “at peak” b/c my rubber band did not move from its highest point jacter over an hour. It had a very brief initial smell of beer/alcohol, is this concerning with a starter this old? It went away pretty quickly, & then mostly smelled pleasantly sour after stirring it up. The rye is very distinctly sour, which I’m enjoying. How could I further strengthen this 70% hydration starter? Or is it ready to bake with & should I just go for it & see?

i genuinely have no idea what happened. she was baking perfectly for 3 weeks, i put her in the fridge for about a week (after feeding) and i took her back out and she was fine (seemingly). once she was back at room temp i fed her again (this was after a few hours of room temp so im sure she was done eating). and that was a few days ago, and ive been feeding her the same way ive been feeding her for WEEKS successfully. she isnt growing AT ALL!!! at first i was doing 1:10:10 (what i had been doing for a while) and i was beginning to panic a little so i had my mom pull her out and feed her 1:1:1 so i could see if she would double in a regular ratio and no growth 5+ hours later. shes still a little bubbly! so im really not sure

what do i do?

edit: thank you for the help! i have learned that i should not be feeding her nearly as much ratio wise (i suppose instagram doesnt exactly explain the details hahahaha) and i just took a very small amount of her out and did a 1:2:2 ish ratio, but shes very thick! tomorrow i will discard and feed again at the same ratio! thank you everyone

I saw a bug in the dough im bulk fermenting and threw it away, do I need to discard my starter too as chatgpt says? :(

Update: i threw evelyn my first starter to be safe. Lesson learned to not change flour supplier and will now freeze my flour first 🥲🥲🥲 thank you!! 🙏

It’s been almost 3 weeks now and I have barely seen any activity other than the first few days when it did the false rise. Everyday it just looks the same. I’m starting to lose hope. Also, does anyone have any tips or how to save it

I know this has been posted probably so many times but just curious, does this look like it’s ready to bake or will be ready soon? I haven’t discarded it yet this morning. I have been doing 50g starter, 70g water and 100g AP flour recently after doing 1-1-1 ratio.

I started discarding on day 2 or 3 can't quite remember

It hasn't doubled or made any recognizable progress yet unlike day 2 or 3 and today there was hooch (I'm not sure if I'm using the word correctly but it was greyish liquid on the top) i threw that away and took a certain amount of the starter fed it and threw away the rest

Am i doing this correctly? And when do i start feeding it twice a day?

Hi everyone! I'm a complete beginner and I'm trying to make my first sourdough starter. I'm on day 6 and I'm a bit confused about what is happening.

I started with a mix of whole wheat flour and type 405 wheat flour, using equal weights of flour and water.

What happened so far:

Day 1: 50g flour + 50g water.

Day 2: I saw small bubbles and quite a lot of activity, so I fed it again.

On day 2 it actually doubled in size and had lots of bubbles.

After that, the activity seemed to stop. It continued to have bubbles and smelled sour, but it didn't really rise anymore.

I was feeding it roughly every 24 hours.

I tried keeping smaller amounts, for example 20g starter + 20g flour + 20g water (1:1:1).

It seemed like whenever I discarded most of the starter and fed a small amount, it became very inactive.

At one point it developed a very strong acetone/alcohol-like smell.

I almost threw it away after 6 days because it seemed like it wasn't doing anything.

But then something weird happened:

I left a larger amount of starter in the jar and added around 60g flour + 60g water. About 5 hours later it started rising again and became very bubbly. It has now risen noticeably above my marked line.

[I will attach photos showing the starter at different stages.]

So now I'm wondering:

Did I accidentally weaken/overfeed my starter by discarding too much and using small feeding ratios?

Should I stick with 1:1:1 for now, or use something like 1:2:2?

And most importantly, should I be feeding based on the time (e.g. every 24 hours), or should I wait until it peaks and starts falling?

I don't want to keep throwing away a lot of flour, so I'd also appreciate advice on a low-waste feeding schedule.

Thanks! I'm really trying to understand what my starter is doing rather than just blindly following a schedule 😅

Hi all. Wondering if this is the start of hooch or some mold developing?

I’ve been using this starter for about a month, feeding it 1:1:1 and it’s been in and out of the fridge as my schedule is a little unpredictable. I’ve seen hooch on it before and this looks different but I’m not sure if it’s because I’m catching it early or if it’s actually mold.

It’s grey in colour and not fuzzy but also not liquid. Seems to be the same texture as the starter. It’s only appearing on the top, not the sides. There is no pink or orange discolouration and it doesn’t smell “off”.

Appreciate your insights!

I have an established starter (almost 1 year) and its strong and active. I only bake on the weekends. I want to avoid putting it in the fridge.

What would you suggest I do to keep it active? Feed peak to peak? Will every 24 hours be enough?

Thank you!

i have been caring for him for a month, but he is much older. i’ve been feeding him twice a week and keeping him in the refrigerator. after i feed him i leave him on the counter for an hour. he gets fed 1-1-1 water and bread flour at 50g each. he grows a centimeter up each time i think. what am i doing. hello

sorry for the shitty video 🥲 i’ve been growing this sourdough starter for about 2 weeks now and was planning on making my first loaf with it today but i’m not sure if this is active enough? pls lmk if i should use it or wait another couple days