Sourdough Academy
Your friendly, zero-judgment guide to creating life from flour and water. Follow these steps, trust the process, and you'll be baking in a week.
Course Curriculum
Day 1: Overview
We are not just making bread; we are cultivating a microscopic ecosystem.
Day 2: Tools
Precision beats intuition in the beginning. Measure everything.
Day 3: The Spark
A simple mixture awakens the dormant life on the grain.
Day 4: The Silence
It looks dead, but a microscopic war is raging inside.
Day 5: The First Feed
The acidic environment is set. Now we feed the yeast.
Day 6: The Routine
Sourdough is a pet. It needs regular meals to survive.
Day 7: The Strengthening
Consistency creates capability.
Day 8: Graduation
Your starter is alive — but give it 7-14 more days of daily feeding before expecting a reliable rise in bread.
Day 9: The Formula
Mathematics is the language of consistency.
Day 10: Temperature
Temperature is an ingredient.
Day 11: The Levain
The son becomes the father.
Day 12: Build Levain
Wake up the workforce.
Day 13: The Peak
Catch the wave before it crashes.
Day 14: Autolyse
Passive strength building.
Day 15: Enzymes
Biology does the kneading for you.
Day 16: The Mix
Uniting the trinity: Flour, Water, Biology.
Day 17: Slap & Fold
Aggressive organization.
Day 18: Gluten
The invisible scaffolding.
Day 19: Stretch & Fold 1
Reviewing the structure.
Day 20: Coil Fold 2
Gentle strength.
Day 21: Final Fold 3
Final organization.
Day 22: Bulk Fermentation
The main event.
Day 23: The Jiggle
Knowing when to stop.
Day 24: Pre-Shape
Building tension.
Day 25: Final Shape
The envelope.
Day 26: Oven Spring
The final explosion.
Day 27: Preheat
Heat saturation.
Day 28: The Score
Controlled explosion.
Day 29: The Bake
From dough to bread.
Day 30: The Crumb
Reading your results.
Day 31: Mastery & Beyond
The first loaf is just the beginning of a lifelong conversation with grain, water, and fire.
Starter FAQ
Whole rye carries more wild yeast spores on the bran and roughly twice the amylase enzyme content of refined flour. Both accelerate the first 72 hours of fermentation.
One teaspoon of lemon juice drops the pH to roughly 4.0–4.3. This acidic window suppresses unwanted bacteria like Leuconostoc and Klebsiella while lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and wild yeast adapt safely.
No. A dramatic Day-2 rise is almost always a Leuconostoc gas burst — bacteria producing CO₂, not the wild yeast you want. The activity will collapse by Day 3. Keep feeding.
Usually no. Cool temperatures (below 22 °C) can double the timeline. Move the jar to a warmer spot (oven with light on, top of fridge) and continue daily feeds. Mould or pink streaks would be a problem; slow is not.
A 7-day starter is alive but rarely strong enough for a reliable loaf. Most artisan bakers wait 10–14 days — bake when it doubles within 4–6 hours after feeding for two consecutive days and passes the float test.
Nothing irreversible. The starter becomes more acidic, may collapse, may grow hooch (a grey liquid alcohol layer). Stir, discard most of it, feed normally. Skipping one feed during the 7-day build delays maturity by about a day.
Discard is the portion you remove before each feed to keep the volume manageable and maintain a healthy flour-to-starter ratio. From Day 4 onward, discard tastes mildly sour and works beautifully in pancakes, crackers, and waffles. Day 1–3 discard goes to the bin — it has not stabilised yet.
Designed for humans & microbes.