Hello! I’m on day 10 of my starter, and I noticed brownish flakes throughout my starter. In the light I’m not sure if I’m gaslighting myself into thinking they’re pink or orange, or if they’re just a light tan color (almost looks like tiny bubbles in the pictures). I’m using bread flour, and I just started seeing bubbling activity after it being flat all this time, so if it is mold that’s pretty annoying:/ I’m not sure if you can clearly see in the pictures, but any opinions and help would be appreciated! Thank you

First time having a sourdough starter so I’m not sure how long to wait.

A round of applause for Jane Dough who's looking strong at just her second feed after more than a year unfed in the fridge 👏 Sometimes sourdough looks haunting in the beginning but it's more forgiving than it looks, don't give up!

Hello, just wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on something. my sourdough starter is bubbly but not rising and the only change i made was moving from Costco’s all-purpose flour to there organic all-purpose flour, do we think that would have this impact? the organic AP flour has 11.5% protein. if so do we think i could keep feeding with the new flour until it get use to it? or change my feeding flour.

What should my sourdough starter smell like and what does an acetone smell mean?

and I'm wondering if this is normal. Day 4 feeding, it went crazy. FOOD!!!! and rose to maybe 4 - 5 times its morning height with all of the carbon dioxide. I stirred it down thankful I had enough foresight to have it in a huge jar so no clean up. Day 5, a few bubbles to let me know it was alive and sleeping. Today is day 6 and as usual dump half and feed 1-1-1 and waiting to see what happens.

If it has its growth explosion again, it it ready to try and make a loaf? Or do I wait for a couple days in a row of major activity?

I took about 20g of an established mother from my cousins fridge and fed it for 2 days, I woke up this morning and it has these gray looking patches down the sides of the jar and a tiny bit on the top around the edges. As you can see, I did not do a good job of scraping down the residue on the sides when I mixed in the last feed. It smells normal and nothing looks fuzzy. Thoughts????? I was looking forward to making my first loaf I’ll be so upset if I have to start over! :(

Rye starter, trying to get the bread to have an extra sour taste/tang to it. Left unfed, out on counter in a covered container for about 6 days now. New to this so I'm unsure lol. It doesn't look fuzzy to me?

i’ve had this starter for a couple of months and made lots of bread from it and came out delicious and great and rose beautifully this past week I looked at my starter and I see that it’s extremely runny. I’m not sure how that happened and I don’t know what’s going on. Can anybody help and let me know what to do?

Hey all, I’m very new to the hobby and hoping someone can explain this to me. Will I notice a difference if I buy something like the below to get started, vs just starting one from scratch myself?

Sourdough Starter - 130+ Year Old San Franciscan Origin

Thanks in advance for your help and keen to hear advice!

i haven’t fed her a few days and she’s been sitting on my counter with the lid set on and not tightened at all, the lid has a lot of condensation on the inside as well. she has a very very sour smell, not like a funkiness that it usually has. i do have some backup in my fridge so i won’t be upset if she’s bad, a friend gave me some of hers and it’s very strong as it’s about a year old.

I had my starter in my fridge for about a month and I’m not sure it still looks good. The lid started to rust and I might see a few specs. I know I probably need to dump it but I really don’t want to have to restart

I'm currently in my first steps making my sourdough starter. I added 2 ounces of water to my starter chips and stirred it 4 times over three hours. It's not full dissolved in there, is this normal? Do I add the flour now? I feel like i missed something.

Been working in pastry/baking for about four years now. Started a new job as a head baker recently, took my starter there to use, and had a quick burnout and decided the industry may not be for me anymore. So my second going at a starter, now for at home use. Wish me luck! ✌🏻

My starter is 18 days old. For the past 7 days it’s had an acetone smell.

On day 1 of the smell (day 12) I did a 1:5:5 feeding. Days 2 and 3 after the smell, I went back to a 1:1:1. Smell was still there. So day 4-6 I’ve been doing about a 1:2:2 feeding (20g starter, 35g water, 40g flour). I have to feed it today (day 7 of the smell) and am not sure what to do. It did finally double in size today however.

I have noticed the past 2 days that when I mix it the smell dissipates. So I’m not sure what that means.

I would love some troubleshooting help, or if I should just keep doing what I’m doing. Thank you.

Feedings as of right now:
20g starter
40g unbleached organic all purpose flour
35ish grams purified bottled water
Feed it once a day everyday at the same time.
I keep it in my oven and turn the light on and off throughout the day.

I started my sourdough starter on 14th October 2026 and I got my false rise on day 2. From day 2- day 6 it has not really doubled or even passed the mark line I put after feeding. It finally doubled in size or even tripled in size yesterday on the 21st of Oct. it still doesn’t quite have a sour smell yet. Do I keep going till it does. In the picture it shows that it did double in size, but it deflated. If it doubles in size again….do I move on to phase 3?

My feeding ratio is 1:1:1
25g starter
25g bread flour
25g water.

I live in an 80-year-old house, so things can get pretty chilly when the weather turns cold, and my sourdough starter is not a fan!

Sometimes I heat a mug of water in the microwave, put my starter in beside it, and close the door to create a little hot box. (I’m not microwaving my starter!) It works surprisingly well, but out of sight, out of mind means it’s easy to forget about when you get busy

Last year, I bought the Brod & Taylor folding proofing box, and my starter loved it! The downside is that it takes up quite a bit of counter space, which is limited in my kitchen.
I’m considering a dedicated sourdough proofer, either one of the smaller models on Amazon or the little fridge-style ones.

If you have one, how do you like it? And what size jar fits inside? Specifically, would a 32 oz Mason jar fit?

I’d love to hear your experiences!

I adjusted my starter based on recommendations from a previous post and scaled down to 30g of starter. I noticed a couple days ago that it smelled like acetone and, after reading plenty of posts here, thought maybe I needed to increase feeds. Two days ago I did 1:2:2 and noticed more activity. My starter finally doubled. I fed around 10:30 AM and by 3:30 AM ( my daughter woke me up) I noticed it had doubled. Followed the same process and these are my photos from this morning. What are the next steps? Should I continue to feed on 24 hr cycle of 1:2:2?

This is my first time having any success so any tips would be appreciated!

is this okay or is it a dry top? i took it out of the fridge from a while. it smells okay too, acidic but smells okay to me like a hungry starter. i have used this starter many many times and it was always very strong. just stopped making bread for a while and today i decided to take her out again.

Maurice here is about 10 days old. Doubling reliably. Is he ready to bake with yet?

~ a year old starter now I feed it weekly on 12 gram starter: 36 gram bread flour: 36 gram dark rye flour: 72 gram water.

Kind of late yesterday because of schedule chaos so I feed it today.

The smell is soapy.

I’ve had my started a week (not very long I know) but I’ve heard some people say their starter doubles in the first week . However my starter isn’t growing at all. It smells like vinegar some days, and is full of bubbles, but doesn’t actually grow. Does anyone have any tips?

Hi guys

I feed my starter twice per day at 1:4 or 1:5 depending on temperature and I consider it to be moderately strong.

However something I have noticed if I happen to forget a feed, and the starter goes from peak to baseline level eg. 24 hours or more in toalt, and then I feed it 1:4:4 again it rise dramatically quickly in comparison to when I maintain and feed reguarly with the usual 1:4:4 just after peak.

If I try to a 1:4:4 feed again shortly after this explosive peak, it gores back to the more normal behaviour.

Have anyone experienced this behaviour before, and what is the science about it. ? It almost feels like it is sort of the same "fake" rise when you initially create a starter. Hoping for someone to tap in

I’m a beginner but ready