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

This is a best seller for a reason. Made great tasting sourdough that me and my kids worked on together. I let them take the lead and it was easy for them to follow the steps. Bread came out perfect. Like it was straight out of our local bakery. Looked perfect and the best part is that we can make batch after batch for a fraction of the cost of buying it at the store. Have you seen the price of bread these days???

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.

All I can say is trust the process. I think most give up on day 3 saying the starter is dead or it didn’t work for me. This is my first time making starter for SD. Here what i would do different. 1. it’s important to mix the starter with water first. Add the tbsp of flour slowly and mix. I did it backwards and got clump of dough so i added more water. 2. on day 3 it will look like glue. Don’t give up. 3 day 5 1(/2 cup stage), place the starter jar in a 100degree warm bath. you will start to see the webbing effect slowly. 4. Cut in half discard and feed 1:1:1 by day 7 Do this daily to get a strong sour starter. 4. If you get Hooch, it’s a good thing. I’m now on week 2 and finally figured out the proper ratios so my bread is light and fluffy.

I am very happy with this starter! I honestly didn’t expect to be able to make good sourdough bread on my first try, but it turned out great. I baked my first loaf on the seventh day after activating the culture, and it turned out surprisingly good. I made a half-rye, half-wheat loaf, and the bread had a nice spongy texture with a light, pleasant sour taste. For the culture activation, I used wheat bread flour, and everything progressed smoothly following the instructions. To simplify the process, I used a programmable bread maker for mixing, proofing, and baking, and it handled the starter very well. The results were consistent and easy, even for someone new to sourdough. Overall, I’m very pleased with this product and would recommend it to beginners who want reliable results without a complicated process.

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.

The best starter ever. Follow the directions and use Spring water if you want the real SF Sourdough experience. I pulled the SF Sourdough recipe off the internet. Amazing flavor. I’ve missed it. Living in the Midwest last several years. First time I’ve had really good sourdough.

I have used this starter for many years, I have fed the starter and grown the starter from this co . many times! When I mentioned that I am familiar with their starter and I use it in my bakery, that this one specifically did not work and would not come alive no matter how much I fed it, given the fact that I have used all the same water, temperature etc. before, I figured they would understand that I was very educated on baking with their starter. I figured I would get a refund given that, their starter did not work. Their product was bad. When I mentioned this I got the runaround, I was asked 1 million questions, told that if I didn't answer the questions that nothing would be done, I told them I already answered your question When I mentioned that I am familiar with their starter and I use it in my bakery, that this one specifically did not work and would not come alive no matter how much I said it, given the fact that I have used all the same water, temperature etc. before, I figured they would understand that I was very educated on baking with their starter. I figured I would get a refund given that, their starter did not work. Their product was bad. When I mentioned this I got the runaround, I was asked 1 million questions, told that if I didn't answer the questions that nothing would be done, I told them I already answered your questions as I've used your starter before. That should be the biggest answer to your question, I'm not ignorant I know what I'm doing here and I do the same thing every time with your starter. This starter is dead. They still would not give me a refund, harassed me a little more and said just this one time they're gonna send me another starter! I would never order from this company again. And I sent them a lot of business through my bakery! Horrible customer service. When somebody simply asks for a refund and shows you proof that your starter doesn't work. You just do it or you're gonna lose a lot of business!

Seems a bit expensive for what you get.

Excelente producto

Used this brand for last two years but the last two cultures i bought were dead and didnot rise. Culture this expensive should work Never buying this again

Good starting culture.

Made lots of loaves so far

I have the San Fran sourdough and now this one. Homemade starters are only as tasty as the bacteria in your kitchen environment or present in your flours, and modern kitchens are so full of cleaners and are so infrequently used for baking etc that they just don't have what it takes to make a great starter. The same goes for modern flour mills. There is a reason that artisanal bakers will travel the world and pay a lot of money for a brilliant tasting culture. Homemade starters may add sourness, but they will never give as complex a flavour. These ones are not like an expensive European import, but they are consistently very tasty, and I'd recommend them to any home baker.