Things I Wish I Knew Before Making Sourdough at Home, Mistakes

Seven years ago, I started making my own sourdough bread.

In addition to being a relaxing hobby that’s taught me the importance of patience, making bread also keeps me from spending ridiculous amounts of money on loaves from the grocery store.

But baking sourdough is pretty different from other types of bread. This is partially because sourdough requires a starter — a fermented mixture of flour and water that creates its own yeast and bacteria.

The process of creating a starter, and eventually bread, isn’t foolproof and can take beginners a little while to grasp.

Here are five things I wish I’d known before making sourdough bread for the first time.

You have to feed your sourdough starter like a pet

To keep your sourdough starter active, you have to feed it using flour and water. Until I inherited my first starter, though, I didn’t realize I’d have to create a feeding schedule for it.

If you leave your starter on the counter, you’ll want to feed it once every 12 to 24 hours. If you keep it in the refrigerator, however, you can feed it less, typically about once a week. This schedule will also vary depending on how often you bake.

If you need a break from feeding your starter, you can preserve it in a few ways

When I first started making sourdough, I didn’t realize I could store my starter for a while without feeding it.

Turns out, you can leave it in the freezer for up to one year. Another more reliable, long-term storage option is to dehydrate your sourdough starter.

This would’ve been good to know when I let mine go bad because I went on a work trip and couldn’t find a friend to feed it for me.

A starter can be brought back to life

Even if your sourdough starter looks grim, it’s still possible to bring it back to life.

When this happens to mine, I feed it filtered water and flour and give it a few days to see if it starts to form bubbles.

It may take a while to get the cultures moving again, especially if the starter has been freeze-dried or dehydrated. When it bubbles up and doubles in size, you’ll know you have a pillowy, healthy starter to bake with.

You don’t have to get rid of your discard

I didn’t realize until far into the process that sourdough discard can be used for other recipes. I figured the term indicated the runoff’s value.

You can either compost your discard or use it in other recipes like flatbreads, pastries, rolls, waffles, muffins, and more.

When making sourdough, patience is key

Throughout the process, it’s important to remember that fermentation takes time. Living cultures need the ideal environment to engage, grow, and develop a strong and active formula.

Your sourdough hobby won’t satisfy any need for instant gratification. The starter will test your patience, indulge your mad scientist alter ego, and encourage a certain level of imagination in the kitchen.

This story was originally published on March 13, 2025, and most recently updated on August 7, 2025.