Before you start, please read the full instructions carefully and ensure your schedule allows you to follow the feeding schedule as described. Delay in feeding schedule may hinder the reactivation process and increase the chances of the sourdough starter failing. 

What you need

  • A clean glass jar or bowl
  • Clean, lukewarm water – Use bottled spring water or filtered water (chlorine and fluoride free)
  • Gluten-free brown rice flour
  • Patience & Love

The dehydrated gluten-free sourdough starter is currently in hibernation, we need to feed it with flour and water to bring it roaring back to life. The starter is ready when it is bubbling and rises regularly after feeding. 

  1. In a clean glass jar or bowl, add a packet of our starter, 2 tablespoon gluten-free brown rice flour and 2 tablespoon room temperature water and mix thoroughly. Cover it with a cloth, coffee filter or any breathable material secured with rubber band and store it in a warm place (70-80 °F)

We want our starter to have a thick pancake batter like consistency. Going forward, slowly mix in the water second and only add enough water to fully hydrate to a thick consistency. You may not need the full amount of water listed in the following steps. 

  1. After 8 hours, add ¼ cup gluten-free brown rice flour and up to ¼ cup water. Mix well, cover and store it in a warm place
  1. After 8 hours, add ½ cup gluten-free brown rice flour and up to ½ cup water. Mix well and cover.
  1. After 12 hours, discard half of the starter so you have about ½ cup remaining and then feed the starter with ½ cup gluten-free brown rice flour and up to ½ cup water. Mix well and cover.
  1. Repeat Step 4 every 12 hours for 3-7 days until the starter is bubbling and rising regularly after feeding. Once it does, your starter has been reactivated and is ready to use! Get baking!

Note:

  • It can sometimes take 2-3 days for you to start noticing bubbles.
  • It is normal for the starter to rise after feeding and then slowly settle back down.

Maintaining your Sourdough Starter

  • If you bake frequently: Keep it on the counter and discard & feed every 12-24 hours
  • If you bake infrequently: Keep in the fridge and discard & feed before baking and at least once weekly.

Now you have to decide how much starter you would like to keep, this would depend on your baking needs and recipes that you follow. We recommend keeping a minimum of ½ cup or 50 grams of starter so that you can feed it before you want to bake. We recommend you ensure that you have at least ½ cup or 50 grams of starter remaining after baking so that you can keep feeding and reusing this starter indefinitely. 

How to discard and feed and maintain your starter:

Your starter will like to be fed an approximate 1:1:1 ratio of starter, flour and water. For example, we will assume you like to keep ½ cup or 50 grams of sourdough starter in reserve. 

  • Discard the starter down to ½ cup or 50 grams remaining. Add ½ cup or 50 grams of gluten-free brown rice flour and up to ½ cup or 50 grams of water like in step 4 to get a thick pancake-like batter consistency. 
  • Let it sit covered in a warm place. 
  • Once the starter is bubbly and near its peak, it is ready to be mixed into your dough as per your recipe
  • After you take out the starter you need for baking, make sure you have the minimum amount you have chosen remaining to be stored for future use.  

✅ Captain Sourpants Customer Satisfaction Guarantee!

We have a customer satisfaction guarantee: if you are having issues and are unhappy with the purchase, please contact us.

We will be happy to troubleshoot any issues if something has gone wrong in the process. Sourdough starters are easily affected by local environmental conditions, especially early on in the reactivation process. Occasionally, the reactivation process may not go exactly as we have described due to local environmental conditions and may need additional troubleshooting.

Frequently asked Questions

What recipe do you recommend?

Gluten-free bread recipes can be tricky. Because there is no gluten to bind everything together, you need to add additional ingredients to bind everything together to form the dough. There are some companies that sell 1:1 gluten-free flour replacements but typically if you use a recipe intended for all-purpose flour and just replace it with the 1:1 gluten-free flour instead, it may not turn out very well. For gluten-free bread, we recommend this recipe as we’ve had good results with it: https://www.capbeauty.com/blogs/the-thinking-cap/gluten-free-sourdough-boules.

Can I feed the starter with something other than brown rice flour?

We only recommend using brown rice flour to reactivate and feed the starter with as that is what our starter is accustomed to. Using a different type of flour during the reactivation process increases the changes of starter failing. After reactivation, we suggest you keep using brown rice flour to the feed the starter but you can try experimenting with other flours to see how the starter reacts.

What is the ideal temperature for sourdough starters?

Ideal temperature range for sourdough starters after feeding is 70-80°F (ideally 70-75 °F) room temperature

I have a layer of water separating out from the starter

No need to panic, different brands of flour absorb water a little differently. If you have a layer of water separating out from your starter shortly after mixing, it just means that there is more water than what your rice flour can handle. For next feeding onward, use little less water than before to make the starter thicker than before.
Once your starter is fully reactivated and ready to bake, a small layer of water separating after the starter has risen and fallen after a feeding is normal. If large amount of water, you should use less water from next feeding onward.