{"id":192580,"date":"2025-04-19T10:23:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T10:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/bread\/what-kind-of-water-should-i-use-to-make-sourdough-starter-breadtopia\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T10:23:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T10:23:48","slug":"what-kind-of-water-should-i-use-to-make-sourdough-starter-breadtopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=192580","title":{"rendered":"What kind of water should I use to make sourdough starter? \u2013 Breadtopia"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Spoiler Alert: This experiment doesn\u2019t arrive at a definitive answer to the question asked, but we learned so much while doing it (also made a lot of Discard Crackers) that we want to share the information and insights \u2014 along with a bonus experiment at the end.<\/em><\/p>\n

The internet is full of both debate and certainty about the best water to use to create a sourdough starter. This includes here at Breadtopia, where we recommend people use filtered tap water, bottled spring water, mineral water, sparkling mineral water, or for just the first couple of feeds: pineapple juice or water mixed with a little lemon juice<\/em>. Our guidance is based on years of experience maintaining sourdough starters, creating new starters for our baking experiments<\/a>, helping people make sourdough starter from scratch <\/a>and helping people revive the sourdough starter Breadtopia\u2019s sells<\/a>. In recent years, our body of knowledge has been especially enhanced by the insightful observations of @Abe, who answers thousands of questions<\/a> about sourdough starter in the Breadtopia forum.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over the years, we\u2019ve observed that chlorine kills microbes and that sourdough starter seems to thrive in mineral-rich and lower pH environments, but we haven\u2019t tested these observations in a controlled experiment until now. When we help people with their sluggish starter on a case-by-case basis, it\u2019s hard to know for certain what advice is truly responsible for its newfound vigor: Is it feeding the starter more responsively? Being more thoughtful about the ratio feeds? Or our suggestion on what water to use. This experiment aims to find out if there is a best water to use when making a new sourdough starter.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re defining the end point of making a new starter as when it can double or more in less than 8 hours after a feed of at least 1:1:1. The photo below is a loaf that I baked with a new starter from this experiment that met this criteria, doubling in 7 hours on day 7.<\/p>\n

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Sourdough bread and discard crackers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Materials and Methods<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I picked liquids to test based on relevance and availability. For example, most people can filter their tap water or buy bottled spring water, mineral water or pineapple juice. Unfortunately I didn\u2019t have access to reverse osmosis or well waters for this experiment. After completing the experiment, I realized I would have liked to test my unfiltered<\/em> tap water to explore whether and how much chlorine inhibits fermentation. (I did test this water in the add-on experiment below, with surprising results.) It should be noted that both the chlorine and the mineral content of tap water can vary significantly by location, so its performance in making starter here is not particularly conclusive. I did have my filtered tap water assessed by a lab to learn more about its mineral content, and the results indicated it has moderate mineral content, tending toward being hard water.<\/p>\n

A note on the pineapple juice starter in this experiment. Pineapple juice is only meant to jump start the creation of a sourdough starter (method described here<\/a>) by lowering the pH. The initial mix and one more feed were done with it and then I switched to filtered tap water. So that jar could more accurately be labeled \u201cPineapple-Filtered Tap.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Preventing Cross-Contamination and Controlling Temperature<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before starting the experiment, I ran all jars and tools through a hot cycle of the dishwasher, and in between feedings, I washed the spatulas and stirring forks then set them in boiling-hot water for several minutes. This seemed like plenty precaution since this issue wasn\u2019t one of toxicity.<\/p>\n

Liquids that were used to feed the starters were all at room temperature. For the filtered tap water and pineapple juice, this required microwaving to warm them up to match the room temperature. The jars of starter were kept at the same ambient temperature and fed with the same flour.<\/p>\n

The Timing and Quantity of Feedings<\/strong><\/p>\n

You will see in the explanation below that the control of the variable of timing and quantity of feeds in this experiment became very difficult over time. That\u2019s why even though there was a \u201cwinner\u201d on day 7, I don\u2019t think I can say it is a conclusive result. Why was the feeding variable so hard to control? My own observational weakness and need to sleep during each 24 hour period. There were mornings when I suspected some of the starters had been stagnant or fallen for more than a few hours, and there were nights when I needed to get the feedings in even though I suspected some of the starters had more rising power in them.<\/p>\n

The feeding rules are outlined below, and for a thorough explanation of feeding ratios, please see the article: How to Make Sourdough Starter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These feeds and timing all took place in a room that was 65-70\u00b0F and all ingredients were measured with a Digital Precision Scale<\/a>. After the initial identical mixing of flour and liquid on day 1, the starters responded differently and I treated them differently so they would each have their best shot at success. This is the feeding protocol I followed. After day 7, I revised the approach to reflect my suspicion that I was overfeeding the starters.<\/p>\n

In the first 2 days when nothing was happening in the jars, I stirred the contents at approx the 12- and 24-hour marks.<\/p>\n

Day 2 \u2013 7:<\/p>\n