Cultures for Health San Francisco Sourdough Starter

The quality of the culture is GREAT! Directions are not accurate on how to properly start the culture on the packaging. BE SURE TO CHECK THE WEBSITE for proper activation of your sourdough starter! Be prepared to read the directions and plan for what to do with the discard. You definitely don't want to waste it! It does take some work and dedication to get great results but it's worth it. Be SURE to PREPARE before embarking on the starter "journey". It's like having a baby in the house or a new puppy. You have to be sure you have the time to watch it and attend to it for many days before use. We are first time starter makers and now we have a ton of discard to use and share with friends! The company is very attentive and responds VERY quickly to support your sourdough journey... EVEN THO it's just kind of disappointing to start a culture with the packaging directions that are not together, The folks at, "Cultures For Health", are going to address the packaging directions, so I give them 5 STARS! This company has a lot of other really great fermentation options like Kefir and more to choose from as well. A good resource for folks looking for quality! WE LOVE CULTURES FOR HEALTH!

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.

This was easy to get started, and I was able to make my first loaf within a week. My first loaf was a bit too dense, but with a few adjustments I had a near-perfect second loaf. We are also having a blast with making discard recipes. Excited for the tang to develop in the coming months! A great beginner-friendly product.

Best Sourdough starter ever. Makes perfect Sourdough Culture. I love it and so does my family. Very easy to use.

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.

I bought this starter 2 years ago and it worked like any other starter I have created from scratch in the past. Bake for 1.5 years with it until i got lazy and let it die. So I’m back for another purchase as its easier than scratching one out. What some of the one star reviews need to realize is all starters take time to bring to their prime due to room temperatures, lack of availability good bacteria (by keeping your starter sealed and not loosely contained and a solid healthy feeding routine. As this starter comes dehydrated, it may need more than a week to hit it’s prime so just keep feeding it daily and making sure it’s stirred multiple times a day to help incorporate thise natural bacterias around it. One way or another it will come alive if its 63-75 degrees in its surrounding environment and fed quality flour with a 12+% protein content at 1:1 ratio to water. One can increase feeding quantity as well. A starter flourishes in the right environment, you can grow a starter in “San Francisco” and send it to a friend in Michigan, and as the starter ages, it loses it’s “San Francisco” profile and gains a new profile based on its new surroundings and bacterias, and vice versa.

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!

Since I make my own bread, thought I would try sourdough to spice things up Bought the packet and had no success Bought a second packet and zero success in getting any fermentation on that one too Instructions show it takes some time since I guess its a small portion of yeast in the packet(less than a teaspoon) but after the allotted time and no fermentation evident, went on to the next step seeing I may be missing something with sourdough over regular yeast. Regular yeast I get results in fermentation within hours adding one teaspoon to 3 cups flour/water mix. Added more flour per instructions over the allotted 4 to 8 hours thinking maybe sourdough yeast is not like regular yeast when it ferments. After adding 2 more tablespoons of flour and water and per instructions and letting it sit overnight in a warm environment, still saw zero evidence the next morning of any fermentation. So I went to work and let it set all day in a warm place and came home to the same looking batter I mixed 24 hours earlier. Only ordered this because it comes quickly but now I wasted over 2 weeks from the first time I ordered waiting for results only to be disappointment. 0 for 2 with these. I cant be the only one getting two packets with zero success. Waste of time, dont take a chance This next time I am ordering one that has better reviews and is active sourdough yeast. Dead yeast this is. Update: The seller contacted me and offered a full refund which is the right thing to do. I am updating my review from one star to three for the effort to do right by the seller. Whatever was the problem in the process to make this yeast compact, it must do it harm since others are not getting results either but the seller is willing to back their product.