Was just reading through this post and wanted to add a tip. If your place is to cold get a new starter going what I did was keep my starter jar in a water bath of warm tap water. Once it’s going you won’t need the water bath
Hi i have your live starter culture I started and is ready to be feed with bread flour. Step one I used wheat flower. I also made your pineapple starter. Down the road. Can I add the two together so I only have 1qt jar.
When I get busy. I have heard you can freeze the whole starter (not dried). How is that done
Yes, you can combine them. Would make life easier. But I’d be leery of freezing it. Did that once when I was going to be out of the country for 6 months. I wasn’t able to revive it. You’re better off drying some per this: Drying Sourdough Starter For Long Term Storage – Breadtopia
Hello, I noticed that you did not discard part of the mixture before adding more flour and water, as many other videos indicate. Does that matter? I hate to discard any part of it and waste it, but my starter is nice and sour after a month but has only tiny bubbles, it does not double at all. What am I doing wrong?
I’ve lost that sour dough taste, but the yeast still produce a nice bread! I have tried numerous online dried sour dough starters. After a few weeks/ months the sour dough is gone. My last product came from Alaska and I had three or four nice sour dough breads, then bland. Any explanation?
Last week at a farmer market (Seattle area) a baker shop booth was selling Sour Dough bread so I bought a loaf and ask them the same question. They didn’t have an answer but offered a bit of their starter if I return next week. Which I was happy to hear and plan to return. Meanwhile I took their bread home and cut into it - not a hint of sour. So is there a range of sour? From mouth puckering to bland?
I’m now just trying the pineapple method. Using fresh pineapple. We’ll wait and see but I really would like to figure out why my sour is dying off. BRB
You may find the information in this thread very helpful for understanding how to manipulate the sourness of your bread.
The character of your starter can change quite a bit through how you care for it (temp, flour type, feeding schedule).
And two breads made from the exact same starter can also have different sourness depending on how you do the fermentation (temp, time, flour type, amount of starter used).
Lots of fun variables to play with!
You are so right Melissa! What is important for all new bakers is to know they can experiment and start over on sourdough leavening. Do not be afraid to try different mediums to create your starter.
I grew up with a Mother who baked bread constantly for our family, after we left home and for grands and now great grands. She kept her “mother” in the basement next to a gas hot water tank. She was so smart.
I love making sourdough starters. I’ve tried many different mediums most are perfect-some fail in taste only.
I have dehydrated oven from years gone by that I have dried my starters-broke into pieces and placed into envelops & stored in pantry, I share throughout my community for those who want to start their own bread leavening.
One that was so fast for me was Keifer. I created my Keifer (I bought grains from Yogourmet.com) then added flour to it for several days-it was a wow of a starter for all breads I created.
I also make homemade yogurt every week. This fall I started a starter with my yogurt-looked beautiful, bubbly-bake loaf of bread-well it was too sharp for some of my friends. I threw out-started again from my dehydrated grains from last winter.
I work in the public so my bread baking takes backseat. I so easily start new sourdough from my stored envelops I keep in my cabinets-in 3 days I have beautiful starter. Don’t think you have to use a starter that is 100 years old-yes they exist-that is not my goal.
I want good food to share with my family & friends. So my message is “don’t be afraid of starting over your starter”. Enjoy the process, then the arrival for great bread made by your hands (and our farmers who provide the grain).
Wow cool starter stories! Thanks for sharing!
My only starter story is that I threw out my first starter. I just wanted to do it once, bake a double batch of bread and that’s it…or so I thought. A few weeks later I felt the urge and made a new starter and haven’t stopped baking since. My vacations are never so long that the fridge unfed time is a problem.
No matter what starter you buy or are gifted … ultimately it becomes “your” starter in that it has the bacteria and characteristics of your location and conditions. So, you can buy SF or Seattle or Alaskan starter, but eventually it will be “Your house” starter.
As far as “sourness”, Melissa’s link and searching will get input on making your starter and bread more or less sour.
At my house, in Northwest Montana, with a starter of a local minimally processed flour and my own well water (untreated, so I assume full of GREAT bacteria!), and a weekly/semi-weekly feed and bake … I have not much sour but a flavor I happen to very much like so have not messed with it. Side note: I keep my house VERY cool at 62-65F Fall-Winter-Spring and as close to that as I can get in the Summer (typically 65-68F). Those cool temps “theoretically” are unfriendly to starter and naturally leavened bread and baked goods. Hah! Not so for me 
You are so right-natural bacteria in the air is what you get to ferment foods-regardless where you live. I so enjoy fermented foods-I have 1 quart sliced cabbage curing for kraut; I’m believer in Kombucha made at home-I make Ginger influenced; Yogurt always and now & then Keifer; and when I was younger I made beer with well water; I’ve never tried fermenting grapes for wine.(but I have friends that do) I always have to check myself-do I love the process & tools or the product? Life is short-just enjoy what you do.
Lol yes, I was keeping kombucha and jun tea going for a while (so fun!) but I really don’t have enough consumers in my house to justify two gallons of fermenting tea every couple of weeks. I decided recently to pull back to just the kombucha. 
Hi, I probably missed it, but by using this formula what is the hydration or ratio of this starter? Thanks!
I ave not had luck withe maintaining sourdough starter. I am a widow living alone and need pointers for making and maintaining pointers. Thank you. Lissa
Lissa,
Here is a good place to starter learning. oh gosh a bad pun 
I and many others on this board can help if you’ve got specific questions.
Hi eric, now i’m making this sourdough starter. Surprisingly, only for 6 hours, the starter looks bubbly, then for the next 6 hours, the starter has more bubble.
Do i need to skip the 48 hours fermentation and just feed my starter tomorrow morning? Thank you😀
Hi Anthony. Yes, that sounds like the way to go. Good that you’re adapting to what the starter is telling you.
HELP!!! I have tried this 4 different times using unsweetened pineapple juice, exact measurements (by weight) followed by Poland Spring water (no tap or RO waters here!) and barely get any fermentation activity, and ultimately ,dump the effort and try, try again. I’m using King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose flour. Stirring regularly 3-4 x a day. Nothing works! What do you think?
Hi, it’s been about 48 hours in step 2 of the starter. There are little bubbles but it still smells like pineapple juice to me. Should I proceed or not? Thx for a reply!
Starters have phases…
Phase one: initial mix: Mix an equal amount of flour wand water by weight. Do not use bleached flour. Bread flour is fine. Wholegrain flour is better. Wholegrain rye flour is even better. Then there is no need to do anything except keep it warm and wait. You will find after a day or two it’ll have a burst of activity. Only then should one begin the feeds.
Phase two: Start with a daily feeding but don’t overdo it. Once every 24 hours and at a ratio of 1:1:1 is fine. That is 1:1:1 starter:water:flour by weight. Stir well and keep warm. But only feed if you see activity as during this stage you will often find all will go quiet. If there is no activity then skip a feed or two or even three.
Phase three: Getting over the quiet stage… if your starter just slows but shows activity and you time your feedings with the rhythm of your starter then you should find that it might slow down but begin to speed up over the coming days. Very often all will have gone quiet and you’ll have to skip some feeds. If you have skipped some feeds just stir instead and keep warm. Over a few days it will become more runny and the smell should ripen. Once it’s been two or three days and it needs a bit of a boost then you can try another small feed of 1:1:1 and use wholegrain flour. Then continue to wait. But more often then not it’ll begin to show signs of life again. Then you start your regular feeds once more.
Phase four: strengthening… Once your starter comes back to life then you slowly encourage a stronger and healtheir starter by increasing the feed ratio and to twice a day. So you might begin to do 1:2:2 every 24 hours. Then should it show good activity then 1:2:2 every 12 hours. If it does well then try a 1:5:5. Once your starter can be fed at a ratio of about 1:5:5 and it has no issue in peaking in 6-8 hours then it’s a good sign it’s strong and healthy enough to bake with.
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Never mind. I’m feeding this but on the verge of throwing it out. Bubbles, but does not increase in size despite feeding it. I have another starter that is healthy.