How to Revive Dried Sourdough Starter
Once you’ve learned how to dry sourdough starter for long-term storage or gifting to others, you’ll need to learn how to revive it!
Today’s step-by-step guide walks you through how to rehydrate dried sourdough starter to full strength in less than a week.
You’ll find photos and detailed observation notes below, as well as a printable guide at the bottom of this post.
To reduce overall waste, this guide uses very small quantities of dried sourdough starter, flour, and water. Be sure to have basic kitchen scale on hand before getting started.
Once your starter is rehydrated and back to full strength, you can always scale up your sourdough starter (using the same feeding ratio) as needed for baking. For more details, be sure to check out my sourdough starter troubleshooting guide.
Equipment Recommendations:
- glass jar(s) with a lid(s) (*I recommend 10 oz Weck jars for this guide)
- small spatula
- basic kitchen scale
Ingredients You’ll Need:
- dried sourdough starter
- unbleached bread flour (*I recommend King Arthur brand)
- filtered water
Day One – Morning:
Combine 5 grams finely crumbled dried sourdough starter in a small glass jar. Add 25 grams (100°F/38°C) filtered water. Stir until the dry starter is completely submerged in the water.
Cover with a lid and allow mixture to sit for one hour at 76°F/24°C or room temperature.
After an hour, add 20 grams unbleached bread flour (I recommend King Arthur brand) and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Note: We’re using slightly more water than flour in this first feeding – a thinner, more hydrated starter allows for increased activity for yeast and bacteria.
Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
Day Two – Morning:
Observations: The mixture will look very smooth and not at all lively – little to no bubbles will be present.
Combine 10 grams starter mixture (discard the rest), 25 grams unbleached bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
Day Three – Morning:
Observations: The mixture will look smooth and slightly thinner in texture. You might notice a couple bubbles on the surface, but the mixture won’t look lively.
Combine 10 grams starter mixture (discard the rest), 25 grams unbleached bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
Day Four – Morning:
Observations: You’ll notice very little changes from the previous morning, but may notice a few more small bubbles on the surface. Stay patient!
Combine 10 grams starter mixture, 25 grams unbleached bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
Day Four – Evening:
Observations: Roughly 12 hours later, you’ll notice many small bubbles on the surface and sides, and the starter should shown signs that it is slowly rising.
Continue storing at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature).
Day Five – Morning:
Observations: At this point, the mixture should have nearly doubled in volume and there will be small and big bubbles throughout the mixture. Allow starter to reach peak activity before proceeding with a feeding. If everything remains on track, you can get back to baking sourdough bread again!
Start regular daily feedings: combine 5 grams to 10 grams starter mixture, 25 grams unbleached bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store mixture at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) until starter reaches peak activity. Repeat.
You’ll want to adjust feeding ratios and quantities to fit your environment, preferred feeding schedule, and starter activity. For more information, be sure to reference my sourdough starter troubleshooting guide.
If you’re looking for additional sourdough baking resources, be sure to check out the following:
- How to Dry Sourdough Starter
- Sourdough Starter Troubleshooting Guide
- Sourdough Bread Baking Troubleshooting Guide
- Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe + Step-By-Step YouTube Video
- Favorite Sourdough Bread Tools and Resources
- How to Store, Freeze, and Refresh Bread
How to Revive Dried Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- 5 grams dried sourdough starter
- 120 grams unbleached bread flour, divided *I highly recommend King Arthur brand
- 125 grams filtered water room temperature
Instructions
- Please reference the photos and observation notes in the article above before proceeding.
- Day One Morning: Combine 5 grams finely crumbled dried sourdough starter in a small glass jar. Add 25 grams (100°F/38°C) filtered water. Stir until the dry starter is completely submerged in the water. Cover with a lid and allow mixture to sit for one hour at 76°F/24°C or room temperature.
- After an hour, add 20 grams bread flour (I recommend King Arthur brand for this guide) and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Note: We're using slightly more water than flour in this first feeding - a thinner, more hydrated starter allows for increased activity for yeast and bacteria. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
- Day Two Morning: Combine 10 grams starter mixture (discard the rest), 25 grams bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
- Day Three Morning: Combine 10 grams starter mixture (discard the rest), 25 grams bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) for 24 hours.
- Day Four Morning: Combine 10 grams starter mixture, 25 grams bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) - check back in about 12 hours time (see below).
- Day Four Evening: Roughly 12 hours later, you'll notice many small bubbles on the surface and sides, and the starter should shown signs that it is slowly rising. Continue storing at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature).
- Day Five Morning: At this point, the mixture should have nearly doubled in volume and there will be small and big bubbles throughout the mixture. Allow starter to reach peak activity before proceeding with a feeding. If everything remains on track, you can get back to baking sourdough bread again.
- Once the starter has reached peak activity, start regular daily feedings: combine 5 to 10 grams starter, 25 grams bread flour, and 25 grams room temperature filtered water in a glass jar. Mix with a spatula until thoroughly combined. Cover with a lid and store mixture at 76°F/24°C (or room temperature) until starter reaches peak activity. Repeat.
39 Comments on “How to Revive Dried Sourdough Starter”
Before I begin reviving my starter, I planned on using just one jar, so how do leave 25 g and discard the rest? Do you have to keep the jar weight each time I add more flour and water?
Yes, you’d want to tare things on a scale – it doesn’t have to be exact what you leave behind, but obviously the more precise, the more regular your feeding period will be.
I personally like using a clean jar every few feedings because it can get very crusty and it’s harder to remove a lot of discard from a jar, then it is to remove a spoonful for feeding into a new one. That’s my personal take but to each their own.
I tried this last week but unfortunately on day 6 I saw mold in my jar. Starting again this morning and hoping for better results. I’m hoping a wide mouth small bowl will help. I think the first glass jar I used was too tall and I had flour sticking to the sides and that’s what molded, not the actual starter.
Hi Catherine, sorry to the late reply. That is very unusual, I wonder if there is something else going on, but yes if the glass jar is enormous, I could see how many there could be issues? Hope you can try again and find success!
Hey, so I did the 10 grams starter 25 grams water and flour both.
When you start to make your bread, right before you’re ready to bake and you feed it one last time do you feed it differently?
I typically do a 1:5:5 ratio when my starter is strong enough for regular baking – you can keep that ratio if you want, just be aware of the schedule and knowing when it will ‘peak’ so that you time when to make bread appropriately. Or tweak the ratio to fit your schedule!
I am new to sourdough. I have a dehydrated starter and I am on day 3. I think it looks okay.
Once I complete day 5,do I continue to feed it daily? Is it okay to use on day 6. I am not sure how much I should have at day 6. Please keep in mind I have no idea what I am doing other than following your instructions. Lol.
Can you send me an email on this too?
How can you gradually get the starter back to a 1-1-1 ratio please
Hi! Is there a reason why you’re looking to go back to a 1:1:1 ratio? That’s usually only used at the beginning of a starter’s life when it’s pretty weak (and takes a long time to peak). You can always adjust ratios to suit your needs as long as your starter has been revived and is back to its old self.
I have revived dried starter several times now and within one to two days had enough to scale up and bake with. Then the “potency” of the starter that I’ve set aside seems to wane (few bubbles). I’ve never heard of this happening before. Will try continuing with feedings to see if it springs back. Note: this was from a commercial dried starter and I wondered if they added something that would eventually cause the yeast to die off… if that is even possible.
So far I’ve just thrown it out and didn’t wait the full week. But I’ll give it a go. Any insight into what might be happening here?
It should be just as potent in dried form, but you really do sometimes need to give it more time and work through any potential sluggishness. Maybe you need to reduce feedings as it comes back? I’ve never personally had this issue but I have not bought commercial dried starter.
I would give it more time no matter what!
I dried my sourdough starter and wanted to test reconstituting it. Had never done either before. As I began day two of this process of reconstituting, I noticed that my starter looked just like my regular sourdough starter that I did not dry. It was covered with bubbles and looked ready to bake bread with. I will continue to follow this recipe to see if it changes at all. But my sourdough starter (reconstituted) is already looking bubbly and beautiful!! (When I received my starter, I was told it was over 800 years old, from Italy!!)
Glad it’s worked well for you!
Thanks for the guide!
I have noticed your ratios see more flour/water than starter compared to other guides (that typically recommend 1:1:1 for regular feeding). Why is that? What are the pros/cons for a lower vs higher ratio?
Thanks again!
Hi! Good question – I do cover this in the text. The higher ratio of water to flour is only for the first feeding (not subsequent). a thinner, more hydrated starter allows for increased activity for yeast and bacteria. After that, I always use a 1:1 ratio (water/flour).
Best rehydration method I’ve used! Takes me just about 3-4 days to be able to make my big batch for baking. Best method I’ve found by far!
So glad to hear that!
Very clear and easy step explication, I have good results and delicious bread thank you 🙏
I’m just wondering, during the first few days when it’s not bubbling and active, why do we need to keep feeding it? It just seems like there isn’t anything to eat what we already fed it…
You can definitely try feeding it less but there are a lot of active cultures in the dried sourdough starter (it is not the same as starting from scratch) so I think it works out best to feed it once a day.
If the starter takes really well within the first 2 days of feeding, is it necessary to continue with more days, or can it be used to bake bread with right away?
If it is resembling the same activity as before you dried it, I would try baking with it for sure!!! Sometimes it just varies starter to starter, but unlike starting fresh – it shouldn’t have any sort of “false activity” that would cause problems.
Hi, would this work for an EINKORN dehydrated starter using EINKORN to refresh?
I’m not sure why it wouldn’t, but einkorn is known for behaving differently and I’m not familiar with an einkorn starter to give better advice! Unless you’re exclusively baking 100% einkorn loaves, I don’t personally see the point of using a lot of einkorn for refreshing/feeding a starter (simply because it’s more expensive and so much is discarded) but it’s up to you!
Is there a next step I’m missing? I followed this and don’t have enough to start a bread. By only using 10 grams starter +water +flour, how do i ever get the 300+ grams of starter needed for a recipe
Hi Kaye! This is not a guide for creating a sourdough starter or a bread recipe – just simply a guide for reviving dried sourdough starter (and having it be on a small scale to reduce waste while it is revving up in strength).
You can always scale up a starter for bread baking using the same ratio and doing a simple calculation to make enough for using for bread/as well as keeping a portion for the mother starter. I recommend checking out my sourdough bread recipes for more information.
This worked perfectly! I dehydrated a large quantity of my starter 5 years ago and it came back beautifully. Thanks for this!
So happy to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback!
It’s ok to use rye or wheat flour too when reviving, right?
I wouldn’t use 100% of either rye or whole wheat for reviving (definitely not 100% rye – it preforms very differently than wheat and unless you’ve had experience with a rye starter, it would be challenging!). I would revive with 80% bread flour and 20% rye (or whole wheat) personally. Or 100% bread flour. Hope this helps!
I’m trying to revive some dried levain butt question using bread flour. Can i use king arthur all purpose instead?
Steve
Sgalkin@optonline.net
There is no reason to question using bread flour (which is simply higher in protein), I use it regularly and tested this guide with it. However, you’re welcome to use all purpose instead!
Love this step-by-step guide. I’ve tried so many reviving guides over the years after the summertime lul and this one takes the cake. So easy to follow and made for a really strong starter out of the gate. I’ll be able to bake with it so quickly!
Just a question, what is temperature filtered water in the last step? I assume that’s maintenance and want to make sure I’m feeding it correctly!
Yes! That is regular maintenance. I personally use room temperature water. If you wanted to speed up activity and decrease the time between feedings, go a little warmer and vice versa. Hope this helps!
6 days of this process and my starter still isn’t ready. In the Midwest my indoor house temps run in the upper 60’s this time of year. I’ve revived my dry starter before successfully so will try another process next.
Not sure what to say, I’ve done this countless times and there is no reason why this process wouldn’t work to revive a starter unless the original starter has problems – it’s simply hydrating dried starter and doing refreshments.
My biggest challenge is finding a spot cool enough for long term fermentation like this. I can do breadmaking that relies on short duration fermentation using chilled water…I live in Thailand and we don’t keep any 1 room air conditioned all the time. Ambient temp in the house is typically about 32C/90F. Any suggestions? Putting things in the fridge part time seems futile and difficult to integrate into daily life in any case
I totally understand and sympathize with your predicament! It is REALLY challenging to control fermentation when you’re working with such high temperatures. The best advice I could offer is to use very cold water (and try to find the coolest spot!), but you’ll have to watch things carefully or reduce the inoculation percentage to keep things under control. I wish I could be more helpful, but it’s really tricky and I don’t personally know of many other solutions!