Told my starter smelled like feet, friend made me change everything

Hayden Taylor · 2026-06-11T19:30:04.175707+00:00

I was bragging about my 6 month old sourdough starter to my buddy Mark and he straight up said 'dude that smells like a locker room.' Got all defensive but then I tried his starter and it smelled like actual fruit. Turns out I was feeding it wrong, way too much whole wheat not enough white flour. Changed my ratios to 80% white 20% rye and now my loaves actually rise. How long did it take you guys to dial in your feeding routine?

harperg763mo ago

Man totally been there, switching to a lighter flour mix fixed my starter too.

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murphy.abby3mo ago

harperg76 said "switching to a lighter flour mix fixed my starter too" but I gotta ask - what ratios did you settle on? Cause I tried a 50/50 white and whole wheat at first and it still smelled kinda funky until I dropped the whole wheat way down. Did you keep any whole grains in or did you go full white? I'm curious if there's a magic number for getting that balance right.

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danielkim3mo ago

Probably took me a solid 4 months to figure out my 80/20 split. White flour for the main feed, a little rye for the tang and the yeast to latch onto. Straight whole wheat just makes it smell like a barnyard and turns it into a brick. I keep my rye at 20 percent and never go above 25 or it gets that weird acetone smell. The key for me was feeding it twice a day when it's warm, once when it's cold, and not letting it go more than 12 hours without food. You gotta play with the hydration too, mine likes 100 percent hydration, equal parts flour and water by weight. Once I locked that in the smell went from gym socks to sweet and tangy pretty quick.

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