San Francisco Sourdough Style Starter Culture | Homemade Artisan Bread | Heirloom, non-GMO | Live Culture Bread Mix | Easy to Follow Recipe

Not having a successful experience with this product. I followed the direction . No rise in bubbling. Tonight I read 1 reviewer who said try 100 degree water bath. I’m trying to that now. 2 suggestion use warm water 3 suggestion add water first. This company must think everyone lives in warm climates. I live in Ohio and I am struggling. Our weather has been terrible cold . I’m going to ask for my money back if this product does not work.save your money if you live in north east Ohio.

Final update: Seller had actually sent a message saying “reply to this message with ‘full refund’ if you would like a full refund.” I replied as such. Seller asked for details about my sourdough process. After multiple back and forths and my prompting they said they actually were not issuing a refund because I’m still working on my starter… what? lol. Huge waste of time and personally I’m never ordering from them again. Update: Seller gave me a refund :,( I feel terrible but I did try my best with it. I’m going to buy it again so I can hopefully get it started and give this five stars. I’ve been really hesitant to write a review, because it could be something on my end. However, I feel I’ve tried EVERYTHING and haven’t gotten this starter to work. I followed the directions exactly and didn’t have a working starter after a week. At a certain point (after the week) I added less water so it could hold bubbles better and I could see if it was growing. I’ve since tried two different bottled waters, mainly spring, multiple flours, including whole wheat and multiple methods of warming the starter. Currently I’ve been using unbleached AP at a 1:1:1 ratio, with the proofing setting on my toaster at 85 degrees and feeding consistently at either the 12 hour mark or the 24 hour mark (trying to figure out when it would like to be fed). It bubbles a little bit and bubbles reach the surface eventually, say around the 12 hour mark and by that point it’s basically more liquid than solid, I can pour it like liquid into the trash when it’s time to discard (starts out like thick pancake batter). However, in that 12 hours it grows maybe a fifth (and that’s after like 6 hours and also where it stops). I’m now adding rye to see if that will get it going. Anyways, POINT IS: It’s been over a month now and even if it eventually starts growing properly (which I’m hoping it will) I can’t say the starter I originally purchased had anything to do with it. I’m pretty sure I just created my own starter for $13. One thing I will say is it never went through the early doubling phase that happens when starting your own starter and it never smelled bad. So maybe it was alive, I don’t know - but it didn’t work as advertised and I’m pretty annoyed at this point thinking I probably could’ve had more luck starting my own fresh starter three weeks ago… I don’t know.

Great sourdough starter! I purchased this once before and loved it, so when i ruined my sourdough starter, I purchased another! A few days before ordering this replacement, I decided to make a starter from scratch. Fast forward 2 and a half weeks & I am STILL waiting for my homemade starter to be reliably active, but I am baking my first loaf from this starter! Can’t wait to get it out of the oven- it smells DELICIOUS! Follow the directions that are included and you won’t be disappointed!

This starter took every bit of two weeks before it was ready to use. I had to consult Google AI for help and it helped very much. We had to tweak the weights and the ratios along the way as well as the feeding times. But now I have a beautiful, extremely active healthy starter that tastes amazing. Don’t give up on it!! consult Google AI for help. Use gram weights not cup measurements.

The culture did not grow in spite of following the directions exactly for several days. The packet has a sell by date of Jan 1, 2027 so it should contain cultures that would be activated. I'm going to request the manufacturer to send me a replacement. I'm not going to spend more money on a potentially non-functional product. Photo shows sourdough culture after 3 days incubated at 78 degrees F. I will modify review if I obtain a replacement that is functional. I notified the seller of my issue with the culture not growing as expected. The seller responded within a day and offered possible reasons for why the culture may have not performed and offered to send me a replacement at no cost. In all fairness, I did continue to feed the culture as directed and in three more days the culture did begin to grow normally. So, for those who do not get rapid growth, I suggest just giving the culture a few extra days with the standard feeding process and temperatures. Once I receive the replacement culture, I will run a test comparison between using our well water and the recommended bottled natural spring water to determine if the water source was the issue. At this stage, I'm still leaning toward the dehydrated sourdough culture as having a lower than standard viable cell density. Because of the fast response, helpful suggestions, offering a no cost replacement culture and fact that the culture did ultimately grow and produce good bread, I'm revising my rating to 4 stars.

Got this starter 8months ago and it has been absolutely amazing. Mine took about 2.5wks to really get going, but I learned to add 1-2 Tbsp of Rye flour to really give some extra healthy nutrition and that was what really set it off and ready to bake! My starter is now a very strong active starter and I add 1-2tbsp rye flour about once a week to my normal daily feedings and it really keeps my starter very strong! I’ve made dozens of loaves, SD bagels, SD pretzels and many types of inclusion loaves! It’s worth it!

I've bought this starter 8 times, and the last 2 batches have been duds. February 2026 and May 2026 don't seem to be viable. I am using the exact same process and equipment as I have previously, but the starter in the last 2 batches never thrives or functions for baking. I think something must have gone wrong with the company's starter culture.

I got a sour tang with this starter without a super long proof to get it when I finally was able to bake a couple loaves of sourdough with this starter. It took so long for this San Francisco style starter to get going I was surprised. I received it Jan 13, mixed it up and started feeding it the next day, and yesterday, Jan 20 I finally baked with it. Meanwhile a starter I mixed up myself with all-purpose flour and water was ready at the same time. So it really didn't save me time as I had hoped but it did have a sour taste to it and it did work the first time. I wouldn't buy it again because it was so slow to get going. Long ago I ordered for free by sending a SASE to Friends of Carl Oregon Trail for sourdough flakes and that one came super robust and ready to use within a couple days. This San Francisco one gives such a tiny amount I had to use all of it in one go and I was stressing the whole time it wouldn't succeed which is why I made my own starter alongside it. If I were to order a starter from Amazon I'd look into another company. But hopefully I'll be able to keep this one alive for a long time. I also sent a SASE to Oregon Trail Sourdough P. O. Box 337602 Greeley, CO 80633 USA so hopefully I will have backup starter sent to me in a few weeks should I need it. I don't know where I first heard of Friends of Carl's Oregon Trail Sourdough but it is legit and a robust starter and I'm grateful for something like that still existing in this world. Happy baking!

Excelente producto

Made lots of loaves so far

UPDATE: seriously…. This starter is amazing. Have a look at my latest! About a 2 years ago I started my own starter, researched it to death and became very good. Accidentally threw all of it away (thought I had one in fridge). Oh well. So I ordered this San Francisco sourdough starter as I figured it would get me going again much faster than starting one from scratch. Well it arrived exactly 7 days ago. I followed the strange instructions included in the package (trust me….they are not typical). After the 5th day of their instructions, I decided to abandon their method …as all I had was a soupy starter that did not grow even a smidge. I also noticed something else….during day 3-5, every time I went to feed it, it had hooch on the top! Now, for those experienced bakers, you know this means it’s HUNGRY. (Hooch, for those who don’t know, is a pale/yellowy liquid that forms when your starter isn’t getting enough to eat. Just stir it in and follow the next set of instructions) The manufacturers instructions were 1 part water and 1 part flour by volume (eg 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup flour). The hooch made it clear it wanted more flour to eat. So I pulled out my scale. Dumped out all but about 1/4 cup of the starter. WEIGHED out 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. Stirred it in and BOOM. She took off. :) 24 hours later, I dumped a bunch out leaving about 40 grams in the jar and fed it 50g/50g again. The picture you see above is my started 6 hours after I fed it. (The line is where it was after I fed it) You see the typical instructions for feeding and maintaining a starter calls for 1:1:1 ratio by WEIGHT. Their instructions meant it wasn’t getting enough flour. Anyway, don’t worry…This starter is clearly very active and worked fast. If you are new to sourdough, do the research so you understand the science and you’ll be fine. Note: if you don’t have a filtered water pitcher, pour water into a jar and let it sit in the counter overnight to get rid of the chlorine AND so the water comes up to room temp. Also important to use UNbleached flour. Good luck! I will update after my first bake. :) UPDATE: Did a bake with the starter and attached results

El precio de este producto es 4 veces mas alto que lo que se consigue en EEUU

Did not go well. Failed the activation process. My beginner starter went more well instead of this one. I wasted my 22$ for this. And i watched all of the videos, instructions and everything.