San Francisco Sourdough Starter Activation Instructions

What you need

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

The dehydrated San Francisco 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 all purpose 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 (70-75°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. 

2. After 12 hours, add ¼ cup all purpose flour and up to ¼ cup water. Mix well, cover and store it in a warm place

3. After 12 hours, add ½ cup all purpose flour and up to ½ cup water. Mix well and cover.

4. After 24 hours, discard half of the starter so you have about ½ cup remaining and then feed the starter with ½ cup all purpose flour and up to ½ cup water. Mix well and cover.

5. Repeat Step 4 every 24 hours for 3-7 days until the starter is bubbling and rising regularly to double its starting point 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 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 all purpose 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.