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Quick answer
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Live Ferment Timer
Dough temp — how warm your mixed dough feels (use a probe thermometer for accuracy). Inoculation — starter weight divided by flour weight × 100 (e.g. 100g starter in 500g flour = 20%). The timer updates as you type and shows a ±25% window because every kitchen is different. Open Start time, starter, cold retard to: set when you begin bulk fermentation and get a "ready at" clock; adjust for whether your starter is freshly fed, at peak, or hungry; or model a cold retard in the fridge. DoughRise Coach subscribers can record actual bulk times — after 3 bakes the predictions are calibrated to your kitchen, starter, and flour.
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Start time, starter, cold retard
Start time
Hours since fed
After (h)
Retard temp (°C)
Duration (h)
h
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Go Bakery →Starter Feeding
The sourdough starter calculator for precise feeding and scheduling
Quick answer
Feeding ratio (starter : flour : water) sets how much of each to combine. At a common 1:1:1 ratio, use equal weights — 50g starter + 50g flour + 50g water gives 150g of fed starter, ready once it doubles.
The sourdough starter calculator tells you exactly how much starter to take from your jar, how much flour and water to add at your chosen feeding ratio, and when the fed starter will be at peak activity and ready to bake with. Enter your current starter quantity, how much your recipe needs, your preferred feeding ratio, and the calculator handles the rest.
Feeding ratios determine how much fresh flour your starter gets relative to itself. A 1:1:1 ratio (equal parts starter, flour, water) produces a quick, active starter that peaks in 3 to 5 hours at room temperature. A 1:5:5 ratio gives a slower, longer peak that works well for overnight preparation or building a larger quantity. The ratio you choose depends on your schedule and how much starter you need.
One thing the calculator accounts for is the buffer. You always want slightly more starter than your recipe calls for, because you need to leave some in the jar to keep the culture going. The calculator builds in a 20% buffer so your feeding produces enough to cover both your recipe and your next round of starter maintenance.
Don’t have a starter yet? You don’t need to buy one, see why homemade wins and how long it takes. New to all this? The complete sourdough starter guide walks through making a starter from scratch, keeping it healthy, and fixing the common problems.
New to starters entirely? The complete starter guide walks through building one from scratch.
1:1:1
to 1:10:10 feeding ratios
Any
starter hydration
+20%
recipe buffer built in
How It Works
How feeding ratios actually control your starter’s rise
A feeding ratio is really a dilution number dressed up as a recipe. In 1:1:1, every gram of starter meets one gram of fresh flour and one gram of water, so the yeast and lactic acid bacteria have a small amount of new food relative to their numbers and get through it fast, typically peaking in 3 to 5 hours. Push the ratio to 1:5:5 or 1:10:10 and you’re diluting that same population of microbes into a much bigger pool of fresh flour and water. There’s more for them to eat, so it takes longer to consume it all and build up enough gas to peak, which is exactly why higher ratios stretch out your timeline for an overnight build.
This calculator works backwards from what your recipe needs, not forwards from what’s sitting in your jar. It takes your target amount, adds a 20% buffer so you’ve got starter left over for the next feed, then splits that total across your chosen ratio to tell you exactly how much starter to pull, and how much flour and water to add. If your jar doesn’t hold enough mature starter to hit that full target, it scales the feed down to match what you’ve actually got, so the ratio stays correct even when the quantity is smaller. One thing worth doing every time: discard down to the exact starter figure the calculator gives you before you add anything. Feeding on top of leftover discard throws the ratio off, and it’s the single most common reason a starter that “used to be reliable” suddenly starts peaking early or late.
Worked example: an overnight build for Saturday’s loaf
Say your jar has 50g of starter left over from last week’s bake, and Saturday morning’s country boule needs 150g of active starter. You want it ready by the time you get up, so you pick the 1:5:5 ratio for an overnight build, fed Friday evening.
- Target with buffer: 150g × 1.2 = 180g
- Split across the 11 parts of a 1:5:5 ratio: 180g ÷ 11 ≈ 16g starter, 80g flour, 80g water
- Fed total: 16g + 80g + 80g = 176g
- 8 to 12 hours later, typical for a 1:5:5 build at room temperature, you’ll have a peaked starter: use 150g in the dough, keep the remaining 26g back in the jar as your next culture
That leftover 26g isn’t a rounding error, it’s deliberate. Building in the buffer means Saturday’s loaf and next week’s starter both come from the same feed, instead of you having to do two separate feeds back to back.
Common starter feeding mistakes
Feeding on top of leftover discard
If you don’t discard down to the exact starter figure first, whatever’s left in the jar gets fed too, and the true ratio ends up wetter and looser than the one you selected. The result is a starter that peaks earlier than the calculator predicted and often over-proofs before you’re ready for it. Weigh the discard down properly, every time, not just when you remember.
Ignoring your kitchen’s actual temperature
The 8 to 12 hour estimate for a 1:5:5 feed assumes room temperature around 20 to 21°C. A summer kitchen at 26°C can nearly halve that, while a cold larder in January can double it. Watch the starter, not the clock, especially the first few times you try a new ratio in a new season.
Using a tired or underfed starter as your base
A starter that hasn’t been fed regularly, or one you’ve just pulled straight from the fridge, doesn’t have the same population of active yeast as one on a steady daily rhythm. Feed it once, let it peak, and discard before you rely on the numbers here. If your kitchen swings between seasons and timing by feel is getting old, that’s exactly the kind of variable AI Baking Coach factors in when it builds you a feeding schedule.
Frequently Asked
Questions about
sourdough starter
How do I know when my sourdough starter is ready to bake with?
A starter at peak activity has doubled in size, smells pleasantly sour and yeasty (not alcoholic or like nail polish remover), and has a domed top that just begins to flatten. The float test is a rough guide: drop a small piece into water and if it floats, there is enough trapped gas to indicate activity. The most reliable signal is timing: fed at 1:5:5, most active starters peak between 8 and 14 hours at 20°C, or 4 to 6 hours at 26°C.
What feeding ratio should I use?
Use 1:1:1 if you need your starter ready quickly (3 to 5 hours) or if you bake daily. Use 1:5:5 or 1:10:10 for an overnight preparation, a slower peak that fits your schedule, or when you want to reduce the sourness and get a milder starter. Higher ratios also produce more total starter if you need large quantities for a big bake. Keep the ratio consistent for predictability.
Can I use cold starter straight from the fridge?
Not directly in a recipe. A starter stored in the fridge is in a semi-dormant state and needs at least one feeding and a few hours at room temperature to reactivate fully before baking. Take it out, discard most of it, feed with fresh flour and water, and wait for it to peak. For most recipes, feeding the evening before and baking in the morning is the simplest workflow.
How often should I feed my sourdough starter?
If you keep your starter at room temperature and bake often, feed it once or twice a day using the same ratio each time, roughly 12 hours apart. If you bake less than once a week, store it in the fridge and feed it once a week instead, taking it out a day before you need it to build it back up to full strength. Skipping feeds for more than a couple of weeks doesn’t usually kill a healthy starter, but it will need two or three feeds in a row to properly wake back up.
Why has my starter stopped doubling?
A starter that used to double reliably and suddenly doesn’t is almost always down to one of three things: it’s hungry and needs feeding more often, your flour has changed (a switch from strong bread flour to a weaker all-purpose can genuinely slow things down), or your kitchen has got colder. Check your inputs in that order, the same way you’d debug anything else that used to work and suddenly doesn’t. Feeding at a smaller ratio like 1:1:1 for a couple of cycles usually brings a sluggish starter back to full strength faster than anything else.
Can I feed my starter with plain flour instead of strong bread flour?
Yes, but expect a slower, slightly less vigorous rise. Strong bread flour has more protein and generally supports more wild yeast and bacteria activity than plain flour, so starters fed on it tend to peak faster and hold their peak longer. If plain flour is all you’ve got, it’ll still work, just budget extra time before you expect it to double, and consider swapping in a spoonful of wholemeal flour at each feed, which reliably speeds a sluggish starter back up.
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