Sourdough starter guides
Five guides covering the whole life of a starter — from the flour-and-water week that creates one to the daily habits that keep it going for years.
A sourdough starter is not complicated, but almost everything written about it assumes you already know the vocabulary. These guides do not. Each one takes a single question, answers it in the first paragraph, and then explains the reasoning for anyone who wants it. Every number in them is published with its source: the technical sheet for a specification, and named authors and a year for a study.
August 5, 2026
How to clean a sourdough starter jar (without soaking)
The daily scrape that means you rarely wash at all, how to shift dried starter without a chisel, and how often a proper wash is genuinely needed.
August 2, 2026
What size jar for a sourdough starter?
Worked out from how much a starter actually rises: why 900 ml suits home baking, and how much starter fits inside one before it climbs the lid.
July 26, 2026
How to store a sourdough starter: counter or fridge
Which one depends on how often you bake. How to revive a cold starter, and how long it really keeps between feeds.
July 19, 2026
How to feed a sourdough starter: ratios and timing
How much, how often, and how to read the rise. Feeding ratios explained, plus what to do when it peaks too early or too late.
July 12, 2026
How to make a sourdough starter, day by day
What to expect on each of the first fourteen days, why day 3 fools nearly everyone, and how to tell when it is genuinely ready to bake with.
Where to start
If you have no starter yet, begin with making one day by day — it is the only guide here with a fixed schedule, and the first two weeks is the part people abandon. Once yours is alive, feeding and storage are the two decisions you will make every week for as long as you keep it.
The other two are about the jar. Size works the volume out from first principles, because the wrong volume is the most common reason a starter ends up on the counter instead of inside the glass. Cleaning is the one that surprises people: done right, it is a ten-second job you do while the starter is still in the jar.
Everything on this site is written around one product — the Doughkeep starter jar, and the two kits built around it. If you want to see how it is measured before you read the guides, the method is published in full.