mason jar of fresh milled flour sourdough starter showing the bubbles it is naturally creating
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How To Feed Sourdough Starter With Fresh Milled Flour

How To Feed Sourdough Starter With Fresh Milled Flour. I get a lot of questions about how to feed and maintain a sourdough starter with Fresh Milled Flour. So, I am going to try to explain it and keep it as simple as possible.

mason jar of fresh milled flour sourdough starter showing the bubbles it is naturally creating
Meet “Bubbles,” My sourdough starter made with 100% Fresh Milled Flour, this is a few hours after a feeding.

How To Get Started Using Fresh Milled Flour To Feed Your Sourdough Starter

First, these steps are for an already established sourdough starter. I may make a post from start to finish in the future, if there are enough requests. But, for now, this is how to transition your sourdough starter over to fresh milled flour and maintain it. If you are looking for a beginner starter culture, HERE is one online, but you may be able to find a friend or someone local that would be willing to give you a little of their sourdough starter.

metal bowl half full of fresh milled flour with a black measuring cup in it

What You Need

  1. Established Sourdough Starter
  2. Filtered Water (not chlorinated water)
  3. Fresh Milled Flour
  4. Kitchen Scale
mason jar of Bubbles my sourdough starter made with fresh milled flour showing it doubled
Another picture of “Bubbles,” my sourdough starter, showing him more than double about 10 hours after his fresh milled flour feeding.

How You Do It

  1. First, in a clean bowl, pour out an amount of sourdough starter. Weigh it in grams. (For an Example, let’s use 25 grams of starter)
  2. In the same bowl, pour double the amount of filtered water and stir (For the same example, use 50 grams of water)
  3. Next, Mill the same weight of flour as water. (For that example, mill 50 grams of wheat berries, which will yield 50 grams of flour)
  4. Mix this all together so there is no dry flour showing.
  5. Store in a container that is NOT airtight!
  6. If storing on your counter, feed once per day around the same time of day.
  7. If storing in the fridge, feed once per week.
Nutrimill Harvest Grain Mill milling flour

This is my Electric Stone Grain Mill I use to mill my flour to feed “Bubbles,” my sourdough starter. You can find it HERE

Tips For Feeding Fresh Milled Flour To Your Sourdough Starter

  • Don’t use bleached flour at any step in your sourdough journey, it would be better to skip a feeding than it would be to feed bleached flour.
  • You can slowly transition fresh milled flour a little bit in each feeding which will be a smoother transition. However, I just switched mine over “cold-turkey” style, and it was perfectly fine after a few feedings over a few days, it was ready to go.
  • Use filtered water, I use the water from my refrigerator which has filters before it even reached the fridge. You could use bottled spring water as well. You just don’t want chlorinated water.
  • If all you have available is chlorinated water, I have heard many have success if they let the water sit out the night before, then using it for feeding. But, I have not done this method myself.
  • I have used all sorts of wheat varieties in my feedings. Typically, I will keep any extra flour that I have milled in a freezer safe container, and use that for feeding. So, it is a mix of all different wheat varieties.
  • If I had to pick one wheat to use, I would choose hard white wheat. You can find that HERE
  • I like to keep my sourdough starter a little on the dough ball side, just because I find it need to be fed less often. When I make it loose and thin, then it sometimes needs fed twice a day. Over time, you will find what you prefer.
  • However, I do like to mix it thin if I am going to be making something like pancakes! You can watch us make Sourdough Pancakes HERE
  • If you are looking for a boost in feeding, try feeding some fresh milled Rye flour. Sourdough starter LOVES Rye flour! It will most likely more than double with this feeding. I have a post on Rye HERE
  • I have a little video short coming soon HERE
Sourdough pumpkin roll cross section

I made this Pumpkin Roll With My Sourdough Starter and some fresh milled flour. That recipe can be found HERE

Best Tip For Feeding Sourdough Starter

Lastly, I think the best tip for feeding your sourdough starter, is to try to plan ahead. I keep my sourdough starter small unless I know I am going to be using it. I will mix it with more flour and water if I know I want to use a lot of it. For example, If I know I am going to make Sourdough Cookies that take 120g of starter, and I want to make some Sourdough Cupcakes that also take 120g, I will make sure I have at least 240g total starter, plus a little for feeding. (Basically, I will use 60g of starter, add 100g water and 100g fresh milled flour to give me a total of 260g = 240g for 2 recipes, and 20g for feeding)

close up of a single sourdough cookie with a bite out of it showing the chocolate chips and m&m candies

This is our favorite Sourdough Cookie Recipe ever, HERE

Can I Make Sourdough From 100% Fresh Milled Flour?

Yes, it can be done with some tweaking. I have a great recipe that uses 100% fresh milled flour to make a sourdough bread loaf. There are some things you need to differently than you would have done with regular white flour, and I go over all of that in the Sourdough Bread Loaf Recipe post HERE.

I also have a Sourdough Bread Bowl Recipe along with a video you can watch me make HERE.

Fresh milled flour sourdough starter
Sourdough Starter Made With 100% Fresh Milled Flour.

Make Your Own Sourdough Starter From Scratch With Fresh Milled Flour

If you don’t already have a sourdough starter, but are wanting to make one with 100% fresh milled flour from scratch, I am here for you! I have a video resource that goes over how you can make your very own sourdough starter using only freshly milled flour. I also go over troubleshooting issues to help make this process a little easier for you, and I make a brand new sourdough starter right along side you! You can watch that video HERE.

I also have a written blog post that covers this information, if you would like to print it out and have it handy for when you are just getting started. You can do this, it is not as difficult as some on the internet have made it seem! You can checkout my blog post about it HERE.

Also, If You Want To Learn More About Milling Your Own Flour, I have a Fresh Milled Flour 101 post. So, I Recommend Starting There!

How To Feed Sourdough Starter With Fresh Milled Flour Video

This video has time stamps, and shows how I feed my starter in it, and this is also an amazing recipe as well! I also have a lot of other videos showing the use of “Bubbles,” my sourdough starter.

YouTube player

Check Out Some Of My Sourdough Discard Recipes

Sourdough Bread Loaf Made with 100% Fresh Milled Flour

Sourdough Bread Bowls

Chocolate Peppermint Sourdough Cupcakes

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Sourdough Cookies

Sourdough Pumpkin Roll

Sourdough Discard Recipes

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Amazon Flour Mill

Everyday Grain Storage Bin

Sourdough Fresh Milled Wheat Recipe Book

Kitchen Scale

Sourdough Starter Culture

mason jar of fresh milled flour sourdough starter showing the bubbles it is naturally creating

How To Feed Sourdough Starter With Fresh Milled Flour

How To Feed Sourdough Starter With Fresh Milled Flour. I get a lot of questions about how to feed and maintain a sourdough starter with Fresh Milled Flour. So, I am going to try to explain it and keep it as simple as possible.
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Equipment

  • 1 Kitchen Scale

Ingredients
  

  • 25 g sourdough starter
  • 50 g filtered water
  • 50 g fresh milled flour

Instructions
 

  • First, in a clean bowl, pour out an amount of sourdough starter. Weigh it in grams. (For an Example, let’s use 25 grams of starter)
  • In the same bowl, pour double the amount of filtered water and stir (For the same example, use 50 grams of water)
  • Next, Mill the same weight of flour as water. (For that example, mill 50 grams of wheat berries, which will yield 50 grams of flour)
  • Mix this all together so there is no dry flour showing.
  • Store in a container that is NOT airtight!
  • If storing on your counter, feed once per day around the same time of day.
  • If storing in the fridge, feed once per week.

Video

Keyword feeding, fresh ground flour, fresh milled flour, maintaining, sourdough starter, whole wheat

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10 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I give everything I’ve read & watched 5 🌟 I was just given 50g sourdough starter & I use only freshly milled flour…so I fed it tonight & I can’t wait to check it out tomorrow morning 😀 thank you & blessings for all you have done & are doing to help us feed our families REAL BREAD & food. 🙌

    1. The start is pretty much the same as regular flour, but sourdough starter eats through fresh milled flour a bit quicker. But, to start follow the same rules of using the same amount of flour and water by weight (so say 50g of each). Let that sit for 2 days, then discard all but 50g of starter. Then, add 50g more of flour and 50g water to the remaining amount. Do this each day, discarding and refeeding. Once it starts to double, it is ready to bake with. However, it is normal not to have a super great rise until the starter is a couple months old. I hope that helps! Happy Baking.

  2. I have a question.. I have sourdough starter that I got from my mother in law which I make sour dough pancakes with all the time. This starter is made with unbleached flour and milk. I take the starter out of the refrigerator (1 cup) at night, then add 1 cup flour and 1 cup milk per batch of pancakes, let it sit out on counter to work overnight, then take 1 cup out in the morning, put in the refrigerator for another time. Is that what is called the discard? I recently bought a mill, now milling my own flour, so can this be used in you recipes. Do I not use milk anymore, just water?

    Thank you Lynn
    lfox12345@aol.com

    1. Yes, the amount you remove for later would be considered the discard. I have never tried a starter with milk before, that is interesting. I would say to use one of your discards and try converting it with water if you prefer. If you want to continue with the milk, I would imagine it would work the same way with the fresh milled flour. But, I haven’t tried it my self. So, maybe start a new one with the discard, and still keep feeding your main one the same way. Then, you can decide which you prefer, and stick with it. Happy Baking!

  3. Which wheat berries seem to work the best? I fed with hard white and noticed a blackish film. Do you prefer soft to feed?

  4. I understand that fresh milled flour can go rancid. If I convert my starter to fresh milled and forget to feed it weekly, will it go bad?

    1. If you are keeping it at room temperature, it needs fed once per day. Those good bacteria/yeast that make your sourdough breads rise are the same that keep this nice and safe. If you ever see fuzzy mold, then that is how you know there is an issue. If you are keeping it in the fridge, you can go down to once a week feeding, but really I like to try to tend to it as often as possible to keep it nice and happy! I hope that helps!

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