Making a Sourdough Starter For the First Time? Here's a Daily Guide

• In the evening of day 14, I stirred the starter, discarded all but 40 grams, and fed it 80 grams of whole wheat flour and 80 grams filtered water, mixing it up so there was no dry flour left.

Since my sourdough starter was rising and falling more predictably, actively bubbly, and smelling good, I decided to prep it for making a focaccia recipe the next day. I simply adjusted the ratios to create a "levain" (aka "leaven") that would be big enough to use in my recipe.

This was also the day I finally started using a kitchen scale (so measurements are in grams from now on) and the day I finally started using whole-wheat flour to give the starter a boost ahead of bread making.