Activating A Dried Sourdough Starter (rehydrating dehydrated starter)

Want to activate a dried sourdough starter? Whether you've purchased a sourdough starter in dried form or have some of your own dehydrated sourdough starter, it's really easy to reactivate and rehydrate your sourdough starter.

Activating a dried sourdough starter can take much less time than starting a sourdough starter from scratch.

Whether you've been gifted some dried starter, purchased a sourdough starter online or even just want to rehydrate some of your own dried starter, the process is really quite simple.

Here you'll find an easy step by step printable guide to turn your dried starter flakes into a bubbly, active sourdough starter in just a week.

What is a Dry Sourdough Starter?

Dry sourdough starter refers to a sourdough starter that has been dehydrated to make it easier to store long term.

Drying the starter removes the water but preserves the beneficial lactic acid bacteria and wild yeast colonies.

If you are drying a starter yourself, you need to ensure that it's a mature starter (it should be at least a few months old). If you've purchased your starter from a reliable source, you can be sure it is already a healthy, established culture. This will fast track your sourdough journey and mean you can bake with it much sooner than you could if you made it from scratch.

Activating A Dried Sourdough Starter

If you’re given a starter that has been dried, you’ll need to rehydrate the starter and get it bubbling & doubling so it’s ready to use. 

The following instructions can be used for any sourdough starter that has been dried.

This is not as hard as it sounds, it just requires a little patience.

• DAY 1 - MORNING - Starting with a clean jar, add 20g of dried sourdough starter to the jar. Add 50g of warm water and stir it together until the starter is completely covered and coated by the water. Now add 50g of flour and stir in well, ensuring that you get plenty of oxygen into the mixture. Cover with a paper towel or coffee filter secured with an elastic band and leave for approximately 12 hours.
  
• DAY 1 - AFTERNOON - After 12 hours, feed the starter with 50g of warm water and 50g of flour. Mix it really well, getting plenty of oxygen into the mixture. Cover with a paper towel or coffee filter secured with an elastic band and leave for approximately 12 hours.
  
• DAY 2 - MORNING - After 12 hours, discard all but 50g of your starter (you could just place 50g of the starter into a clean jar and get rid of the rest). Add 50g of water and 50g of flour to your mixture. Give it a really good stir to get plenty of oxygen into the mix. Cover with a paper towel or coffee filter secured with an elastic band and leave for approximately 12 hours.
  
• DAY 2 - AFTERNOON - After 12 hours, discard all but 50g of your starter (you could just place 50g of the starter into a clean jar and get rid of the rest). Add 50g of water and 50g of flour to your mixture. Give it a really good stir to get plenty of oxygen into the mix.
  
• DAY 3 - MORNING - Discard all but 50g of your starter (you could just place 50g of the starter into a clean jar and get rid of the rest). Add 50g of water and 50g of flour to your mixture. Give it a really good stir to get plenty of oxygen into the mix. You'll need to repeat step 3 above every 12 hours for around 3-7 days. You want your starter to become bubbly and consistently doubling after each feed. Once it is doing this consistently, it will be ready to bake with.

Once your sourdough starter is doubling consistently, you'll need to move it into ongoing maintenance mode - you can find an easy guide to sourdough starter feeding and storage here.

For a printable version of these instructions to rehydrate dried sourdough starter, scroll towards the end of this post.

Best Tips for Rehydrating Sourdough Starter

While activating dried sourdough starter is a relatively easy process, there are a few things that will ensure you have success.

• Flour - Make sure you use the same flour consistently through the process. If you wish to change the flour you're using, try to wait until the starter has started doubling consistently.
  
• Timing - Try to keep the timing of your feeding consistently 12 hours apart. Feeding the starter twice a day is important to get the starter going.
  
• Temperature - You should keep the starter warm (if possible) to speed up the activation process. Starters do best between 24C - 28C. You'll find tips of keeping your starter warm here.
  
• Consistency - Depending on the flour you're using, your starter may feel a little thicker or a little runnier. Ideally, you want it to be like warm peanut butter. In general, your sourdough starter will thin out a little as it ferments, so don't stress too much if it feels a little thick. Try to keep to the same equal flour to water ratio. If you feel the starter is too runny, you can fix it using these steps.
  
• Storage - Once your starter is doubling consistently you can choose to store your sourdough starter in the fridge or feed it daily and store it on the counter.

Equipment Needed For Activating Sourdough Starter

It's relatively easy to reactivate a dry sourdough starter. Here's what you'll need to ensure you have success:

• Dried sourdough starter
• Filtered Water (you can read about the best water to use here)
• A clean jar (you can see the best ones to use here)
• Digital scale
• All purpose flour or bread flour (read about which is best here)

Further Reading

If you've enjoyed this step by step guide to activating a dried sourdough starter, you might find these articles useful:

• If you're interested in starting your own sourdough starter from scratch, you'll find easy step by step instructions here.
  
• Comprehensive troubleshooting guide to sourdough starter.

• When your sourdough starter is ready to make bread, you'll find an easy recipe to bake simple sourdough bread here.

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