A sourdough starter, levain, chef, lievito madre, mother dough, mum, and so many more names—it can get a bit confusing. What is it, and when is it used? This post focuses on two foundational blocks in baking sourdough bread: a sourdough starter and a levain. And while there are many names for these two and other preferments, let’s dig in and look at what a levain is and how it differs from a starter.
The world of preferments is vast, with each having different flour-to-water ratios and names. A preferment is essentially a mixture of flour, water, and a leavening agent (in our case, a sourdough starter) that is left to ferment before mixing it into the final dough. Preferments help bring flavor, aroma, and keeping qualities to your bread. The extra fermentation time contributes additional byproducts of fermentation to your dough in the form of organic acids and alcohols—flavor. You can also use a preferment to skew the populations of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and wild yeast, which affects the taste and texture of the final dough as it ferments.
At their core, though, both a starter and a levain fall under the same category as a preferment. They are mixed ahead of time, left to ferment, and then either used directly in the dough (levain and sometimes starter) or refreshed to keep the culture alive (starter).
And if you’re wondering, yes, the prefermented flour percentage you often see in recipes is the portion of the total flour that’s fermented ahead of time. This percentage gives you an idea of how much preferment there is relative to the rest of the recipe’s flour. Ultimately, this has implications for flavor, the recipe timetable, and more.
Let’s start at the beginning.
What is a Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is a combination of wild yeasts and suitable bacteria that can live indefinitely if properly maintained. This starter can be used to seed fermentation in new bread dough, used to make a levain, or refreshed (discarded and new flour and water added) to continue its life.
You will never use your starter up entirely in a single bake. You might take part of your starter to mix directly into the dough, but you will always set aside some to keep the culture going. And if you don’t use a starter to mix directly into a dough, you can create a small offshoot to scale up the preferment, change its flour makeup, or adjust its hydration. This offshoot is called a levain.
An exception to this is the pâte fermentée, or “old bread” method. In this approach, no starter is maintained separately; a small piece of dough is taken from a batch of dough and kept until the next day to continue the culture. While bakers have used this method throughout history, I prefer to keep a separate jar for my starter. This approach helps avoid the unfortunate situation of forgetting to save a bit of dough and having to create a new starter from scratch.
Check out my 21 most common starter problems (with solutions) →
What is a Levain?
A levain, also called a leaven or levain starter, is an offshoot of your sourdough starter, and it’s a mixture of fresh flour, water, and some ripe starter. This mixture will be used entirely in a batch of dough and has the same fate as the bread dough you’re mixing: you will bake it in the oven. But before that, it’s your preferment for the day’s dough, meaning it will leaven your dough (make it rise) and contribute to the flavor produced by fermentation byproducts.
A levain is an off-shoot of your sourdough starter with a limited life.
You might also see the term “levain bread” or “pain au levain,” which are other names for sourdough bread. Because the term levain is French for leaven, which is almost always taken to mean naturally fermented bread, the term levain is often used synonymously with sourdough.
What is the point of making a levain?
Now that we know what a levain is (and isn’t), what purpose does it serve, and why not just use your sourdough starter? To me, there are two main uses for a levain:
- You can use a levain to scale up the pre-ferment to satisfy a recipe that requires more pre-ferment than your starter can cover
- It’s a chance for you to alter the flavor and performance characteristics of the pre-ferment for a single bake
And remember, you can always use your sourdough starter instead of your levain, especially in a pinch (more on this later).
Let’s look at the above benefits of making a levain in more detail.
1. A levain lets you scale up your preferment
I maintain a relatively large sourdough starter that I refresh twice daily. At each refreshment time, once in the morning and once in the evening, I have about 150-200g of ripe starter ready. This starter can be added to a dough mix, or I can use it to make a new levain. And while this amount of starter can cover just about all the recipes here at my site, a levain lets you scale up your preferment. And this can be essential if you maintain a smaller sourdough starter or your recipe requires a large preferment.
Further, using a levain lets me maintain a smaller sourdough starter, reducing flour use, and, in one step, build up my preferment to cover larger recipes or make multiple recipes.
2. A levain lets you change the flavor profile
You can use a levain to skew the flavor profile of the bread toward a more sour sourdough bread, or one that’s less sour. And the power of using a levain means you don’t have to modify your starter: you change the makeup of the levain.
Adjusting the flavor profile is an in-depth topic (one which I tackle in great detail here). But in general, assuming other factors (temperature, seed percentage, etc.) are held constant, I find that a levain made with a higher percentage of whole-grain flour yields a more sour final bread. Therefore, for many of the sweet or delicately flavored recipes here, I make a levain with 100% white flour.
For example, let’s look at that babka levain in detail to assess why it yields a milder result. Using white flour reduces the mixture’s buffering capacity. This reduced buffering capacity means the pH will drop faster as fermentation byproducts—namely, acids—are produced, acidifying the levain. Bacterial (lactobacilli) activity is reduced at low pH, which helps limit acid (sourness) production in the eventual dough.
Remember that the flour makeup of the levain is not the only factor affecting the eventual flavor profile. You must also account for fermentation time, temperature, starter seed percentage, and the time of use. All of these contribute to adjusting the end flavor balance. But this is just one of the levers we can pull to change the flavor and texture.
As sourdough bakers, part of the fun in natural leavening is managing wild yeast and bacteria to produce bread with our desired flavor profile.
Can a levain be multiple builds?
Yes. Many bakers use multiple levain builds to further adjust the yeast-to-bacteria balance or for scheduling purposes. Some rye bread methods, such as 3-stage Detmolder rye, use multiple builds to favor either lactic acid bacteria or yeast (or both in succession). Another example is panettone, which uses a series of short “refreshment” builds with a bit of lievito madre or pasta madre (sourdough starter) before it’s mixed into the primo impasto, or first dough.
What if I forgot to make my levain?
In a pinch, just use your ripe sourdough starter! It might not have the same intended flavor profile in the end, but it’s better than not baking at all, right?
Alternatively, you could make an intermediate, fast levain build. In this case, I’ll often make a 100% flour, 100% water, 100% ripe starter (1:1:1 ratio). This levain is equal parts flour, water, and ripe sourdough starter and will ripen in 3-4 hours at 78-80°F/25-26°C. Again, this might adjust the final, intended flavor profile, but it’s a handy option.
How much levain is in sourdough bread?
The percentage of levain to total flour can change from recipe to recipe. A typical levain percentage for my formulas ranges from 6% to 30% levain in my final dough. But you can undoubtedly have values outside this range. The amount I use depends on the overall formula and its ingredients.
Note that the levain percentage in a bread formula differs from the prefermented flour percentage. See my post on baker’s percentages for more.
Is there a single levain recipe?
There’s no single levain recipe for every sourdough bread. And for the reasons discussed above, I often adjust my levain builds to change the flavor profile, flour mix, dough hydration, and timetable. There are many ways to make a levain, depending on the bread you’re baking.
What is a Levain and How is it Different From a Sourdough Starter?
To sum up, here’s what’s different, and the same, between a levain and a sourdough starter:
| Sourdough Starter | Levain |
|---|---|
| A preferment | A preferment |
| On-going culture, refreshed regularly | Used once for a single bake |
| Ongoing culture, refreshed regularly | Can be any flour combination |
| Because it’s maintained consistently, it should have consistent flavor characteristics | Can be used to change the flavor and texture of a single batch of dough |
Ultimately, what you call your sourdough starter, mother dough, chef, levain, etc., is up to you. Much of this is cultural; each culture seems to have its own terminology, but it’s also a matter of preference.
They’re all preferments, and they all help bring flavor, aroma, and keeping qualities to your bread. I use levain to represent a single offshoot of my sourdough starter. And I use the term starter to represent my continually maintained sourdough culture.
How Can I Calculate My Starter or Levain Ingredients?
If you’re looking to make a specific starter or levain, use my calculator to quickly figure out how much water, flour, and seed (starter carryover) you need.
For example, if you have a recipe that calls for a 50% hydration (stiff) levain weighing 200g, the calculator will tell you exactly what you need to mix to achieve it.
What’s Next?
Head back and see how to make sourdough bread in the Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough Bread.
199 Comments
Hi Maurizio,
I have a question – do I need to feed my starter and wait for it to be rip before I pull some of it out to make my levain?
Thanks!
Yes, feed it and let it ferment for some number of hours until ripe (bubbly, sour smelling, loose), then take some to make the levain.
I am curious about this. I keep my starter at room temp, and feed 1:5:5 once per day in the evening. It peaks/falls before 24 hours is up— ideally, I should be doing this ratio 2x/day but I can’t with work/life balance
The vast majority of the time I build my levain at night, 24 hours since the last feed, so it is not at peak/ripe, then mix my dough in the morning (when levain is at peak). My breads seem to turn out well. As I am never sticking the starter in the fridge or waiting long between feeds, I am curious as to why it would be better in my situation to build the levain using a ripe starter (to do this I would need to add an extra feed at the 12-hr mark). I guess I would need to do a side by side comparison but I have a hard time believing this extra step is necessary. What do you think?
If my levain has not double in size after the 5 hours but I started the autolyse what should I do? I moved it to a heat pad do I need to start a new autolyse?
Let the autolyse run until your levain is ready, it’ll be just fine.
One issue I’m unclear on and maybe I have just missed it…you never seem to indicate what percentage of your levain should be starter. You mention the 1:1:1 ratio if you’re in a pinch, but what would a “normal” bake look like percentage-wise? Thanks
Usually, it’s 20% to total flour in the levain!
Hi Maurizio,
I always feed my sourdough starter (I maintain two jars) and use it when ripe instead of making a levain. That’s because in many of your recipes the levain must be made the night before baking and I think this way it will rise and has gone all the way down by the time of dough making. So I would use a non ripe preferment. Isn’t it odd???
Thanks, Eloisa
No, it’s totally find to just use your starter directly, Eloisa! They are the same thing, after all 🙂
I’m new to the sourdough starter family. I am a bit confused on the Levain, so sorry!!! So that small amount you have in the jar is that after you have fed the starter? And if so you are leaving it out to add to your dough recipe. So I am still using the starter and the other ingredients and just adding in the levain as well? I know the starter is my “mothership” just lost on the levain. And one more question, I bought the Brod and Taylor home. So if I keep it at 50 then I only feed it once a week? But when I need it before the feeding then do I feed it beforehand as you would the fridge method to wake it up? Thank you so very much for ALL your help.
Yes, each time you feed your starter you leave just a bit in the jar, and to that, give it fresh flour and water.
Hello! Does my levain need to double in order to be useable in the recipe? Or should I just go by hour? In other words, should I use it in 5-6 hours no matter what it looks like, or should I wait till it’s doubled? Also, if it’s peaked and seems to have dropped a bit, can I still use that?
Thanks!
I don’t like to go by “doubling” or rise height. See here for my answer!
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/frequently-asked-sourdough-starter-questions/
i am also looking for an answer to this. How do i know that my levain is ready to use?
Hi. Thanks for the great levain discussion. I use your perfect loaf book religiously!
Some of your recipes call for a 5 hour levain and others a 12 hour. Could you discuss why?
Thanks so very much.
So glad you’re enjoying my cookbook! The answer to your question is in my book, in the levain section 🙂
Dear Maurizio – thank you so much for all the content you have put out on the internet and for your lovely book! I’ve been eagerly reading the techniques sections for the last several weeks and am just now trying to make my first sourdough breads!!
I am hoping to ask for your insight on an issue I’m experiencing which I haven’t seen described on your blog, the book, or the internet more broadly: all of my levain builds (and subsequent bulk ferments) have very weak fermentation activity despite having a very active sourdough starter.
Parameters:
Starter – classic TPL recipe (20g carryover, 30g rye, 70g AP, 100g water), water at 85*F at mixing, final mixing temp 82*F, cools to 76*F over a 12 hour time period. Starter doubles in height at around 8-10 hours, tons of large bubbles, smells wonderfully fruity sour with notes of malic acidity , tastes like sour cream.
Levains – build recipes as per your book (I have tried both the beginner sourdough and the 100% WW loaf). Both are started with water at 80-82*F —> final internal temp of 78*F after mixing, held at consistent 76*F for fermentation period. Levains tend to be super slow to take, usually need to add 2-3 hours of extra time as compared to book recommendations
Final bread – even slower fermentation than levains, not enough time in a day to finish a full bulk ferment sometimes. Internal dough temp held consistent at either 76*F or 78*F depending on recipe. Zero oven spring and not edible (sadly have to compost).
Before beginning with my starter, I used the techniques in your book for mixing, bulk, preshape, shape, score, bake, etc. with instant yeast to make bread and had really good success so I don’t think it’s an issue with technique at the other stages…it’s something fermentation related that I can’t pin down. Any and all help is really appreciate—even a link to a YouTube video, Reddit post, etc.
Thanks so much!
Can I save leftover Levain and use it after it’s been refrigerated in making more bread?
I would use it in a discard recipe, instead. If it’s been too long in the fridge it may not function very well to leaven dough!
I am just starting out. I have a mature starter and a jar of discard. Are you saying my jar of discard is levain? If so then do I feed it before I use it? Sorry I am confused.
Your discard is discard, not levain. Your discard is starter that isn’t quite ready. So it wouldn’t be right for levain. Levain needs starter that’s ready. Usually a spoon full in a glass will float, then you know it’s ready and nice and bubbly, at its peak. Sometimes I use a mock floater tho as I also go of the smell and if it has a a good meter on of bubbles. I’m quite new too. I’d forget discard and levain right now and build
Up some rhythm and experience of your starter. Then when comfortable with that look at using discard for flat breads and pancakes etc and levain for different flavour profiles.
"Your discard is starter that isn’t quite ready." That really is not what discard is. Discard is the amount of starter that is left in the container after you have removed the amount you're going to use to refresh/re-feed your starter. Using what ever ratio that is needed or desired. I personally use a new clean container whenever I am refreshing/re-feeding my starter. Some people save the discard for other things. Some people throw it away.
A levain is simply a small amount of ripe starter that’s been mixed with fresh flour and water and left to ferment. That’s it! It’s like an off shoot of your starter that’s used up entirely in a single bake.
“Discard” can have different connotations, because it can be overripe or under, too.
Hello, Where can I purchase this container?
Thank you!
You can find these sourdough starter containers here!
If i missed peak to make my leavin, May I still use the starter?
Yes, absolutely!
Hi Maurizio – Any chance of having a post focused on the Italian Pasta Madre / Lievito Madre approach with its water or bound storage periods, washing, and refreshment cycle and tight pH window w/ high expectation for leavening power (>3x in 3 hr)? I’m toying with this myself and not seeing success as quickly as I’d like. Would love to have another reference point to learn from. Much of the resources are in Italian and the few in English are ‘translated’ from Italian by machine or something. 🙂
Yes, I am absolutely going to have this, but please bear with me! I need more time to fully develop my process here for a home baker 🙂 I’ll get there soon!
Good to hear. It is really a fascinating sub-topic of sourdough baking. But I’m finding it is really challenging as a home baker to practice it because it is so time and flour intensive (each test I do is down to 50g) and STILL I just accmulated and used 1400g of discard from the past few weeks! :-0
Hi Maurizio,
I was wondering, if you create a levain with a different flour than the starter, do you prefer building it with multiple feedings or is a single feeding sufficient? I see that you mentioned that multiple feedings can be used to further adjust the balance of yeast to bacteria, but does it make a big difference compared to a single feeding?
Cheers!
A single feeding is sufficient, I haven’t found this to cause any issues!
Hi Maurizio!
I’ve been having a little trouble getting my levain ready for baking after resting 5-6 hours. My SDS is very active, I’ve been feeding it whole wheat only twice a day. I’ve noticed when I add AP flour it gets very sluggish, and the same has been happening with my levain, it often does not pass the float test after 5-6 hours. My question is: is there a problem if in your Beginner’s Sourdough Bread Recipe I substitute the flour in the levain for Whole wheat only?
Regards.
That’ll work just fine! Also, if your starter needs to go 6 or 8 hours to be ripe, give it that time. Keeping it warm will also help.
Hi Maurizio
So often in recipes I read the starter should either be young, ripe or mature. Can you elaborate what on
whether a ripe and mature starter are one and the same thing and can one say that these are starters that have passed their peak, beginning to recede, but have not collapsed. A young starter being one that has peaked and at least doubled but still rising. I’m just looking for some clarity, different people use different terminology and often some are inter changeable, but one does want to get the full understanding so as to find the correct final application.
Sorry for the confusion, there are a lot of conflicting terms! These days I simply say “ripe,” meaning it’s fermented for some number of hours (usually overnight for me) and either needs a feeding (refreshment) or it can be used to make a levain or mixed into a dough directly.
Some bakers use the term “mature” to refer to what I call ripe.
Hey, Liz! Sounds like a good method, and as I replied to you on F52: it’s all about our own process and preferences in the end! I personally find a lot of value in building a dedicated levain for each bake, but not all of them, sometimes I just use my ripe starter. The levain does help set everything to start with a common base, if you will, but if your starter is well-maintained it’ll work just the same (they are both preferments, after all). Thanks as always for the comments and happy baking!
In some cases, water is the majority ingredient in bread, too! It definitely plays a role, especially with fermentation.
Liz
Hi I was intrigued by your post. I am new to sourdough baking and would love your recipe. I plan on using my mixer as well with the dough hook. 65 years old, so understand sore arms and shoulders, lol. Also how do you maintain your starter? So many confusing directions.
Thanks
Laura
NC
Hi! I have been baking sourdough bread for over 20 years. I still find it difficult to regulate how sour the final bread becomes. To put my questions simple: how do I bake a really sour bread?
Niklas, Sweden
Hey, Niklas! I’ll reply to your email soon 🙂
Hello, did you ever explain how we can get a really sour bread?
Working a comprehensive post on this topic!
Hi Maurizio, I’ve done search and can’t find a post relating to it. Did you share this? Also great work on the book. I have my wife securing a copy for a belated Xmas present!
Maurizio,
I went through the comments for this very question. You stated that with the levain, we can change the profile of our flavor, but not affect our starter. I love very sour flavor, but have yet to understand how to achieve it. I have been told if I "abuse" my starter I could/would get that. It has not occurred. I have abused my starter and thanks to your website I have salvaged it (as well as started a whole new one, just to see if I could!) Could you please further elaborate on how I would create a very sour flavor with the levain–assuming this is the process? And do you have the recipe for the rye that required three/multiple feedings? Detmolyer or something.
Hi Niklas, I have been going through the comments for this very question! Did you get a reply?
Hey Maurizio thanks for all of your great sourdough explainers. I’m also a burqueno so it’s great to have someone so knowledgeable baking in the same environment!
What are the best types of flour to use in starter? I do a 50/50 white/whole wheat mix. I’ve used all purpose, bread, and hi gluten flour as my white flour and each seems to have its own consistency but I can’t tell how it’s affecting the starter itself, including the flavor profile. Any pointers on what tends to produce the strongest/most flavorful starter? Thanks again for all the helpful tips!
Glad to hear from you, Colin! In my experience, they all work just fine, it’s up to your preference. I like a mix of either white flour (all purpose) and whole what, or AP and whole rye (usually 50/50 or 70/30 with 30% rye). I like the addition of whole grains to give it a little more strength and flavoring.
is a poolish or a biga a reasonable alternative to either the sourdough or levain?
A biga has commercial yeast so it’s not strictly sourdough. But, I see a biga as kind of a hybrid: you still get much of the flavor benefit from the long running preferment, but still leavening power from the commercial yeast.
Can I refresh the levain if it is ready, but I want to use it later?
Yes, you can do a fast refresh. I’d do like 100% carryover, 100% flour, 100% water. That would ripen in 3-4 hours.
Hi Mauricio,
I’m not sure I’m following your distinction between starter and levain. Currently I keep a “starter” created from a 25gm/25gm blend of organic white flour and fine organic wheat flour. 100% hydration (50gm water) ratio. The night before I’m going to bake a single loaf I increase the refresh to 80gm mix of white and wheat with 100% hydration (80gm water) which gives me enough (160gm) in the morning to use 100gm of starter in the loaf while leaving enough leftover to feed and refresh the starter again. Are you suggesting that I should consider separating out my starter before I mix the “levain” for the morning break and keep adding the same 50/50 mix at 50gms? I hope this question makes sense!
Thanks,
Evan
Hey, Evan! What you’re doing is absolutely fine—there’s no right or wrong way! Your approach might actually be closer to what many bakers do in a bakery. I like to separate out a little build (levain) that I use 100% in a single bake, as I describe in the post. This way, I can alter the flour blend if I need to or change the temperature without modifying my starter. BUT! It’s not necessary, it’s all about how you’re doing things, and if you’re getting great bread by scaling up your stater a bit, that works, too!
Hi Maurizio!
First, let me say thank you for all of the wonderful content that you share – about your experience and knowledge of bread making. It has been tremendously helpful – as I only started with sourdough last April!
I totally understand your reply. In fact, instinctively I’ve used your approach when I was experimenting with using 100% whole wheat flour for my starter, I wasn’t sure what the effect would be. I tried 100% whole wheat, then settled on the 50/50 blend – but I used your approach of keeping back some of my original starter – just in case. 🙂
Now I search for the most open crumb I can create. I’ve been using roughly an 80% hydration and following a traditional stretch and fold fermentation. The crumb is nice, but I think I might need to adjust my timing as I’ve been using my starter ~ 12 hours after the last refresh. Crumb is “good”, but I’m striving for “great” :). Any suggestions on where I can experiment so as to open the crumb further would be appreciated.
All the best,
Evan
Happy to help! Unfortunately there isn’t a single thing that leads to a more open interior in a baked loaf of bread. First, the flour used is very important, it needs to be strong enough (protein) and have the proper gluten properties to trap the gasses produced during fermentation. For example, no matter how hard you try with rye flour, the gluten properties in the grain just won’t lead to an open interior.
From there, a very strong and well-fed starter is important — it all begins there. Fermentation in general is so critical, it’s worth spending some time really stepping back to look at how your starter is performing and how well-fermented your dough is during bulk fermentation and the final proof. Without strong fermentation your loaf will never rise to its full potential.
Sufficient dough strength through mixing, and also organically through fermentation, is also important. Think of your dough as a balloon: you want it strong enough to trap gasses and expand in the oven, but not so strong that it won’t relax and expand out. Finding this sweet spot takes some practice.
A full and complete bulk is also very important. Cutting bulk fermentation short before the dough is sufficiently fermented will hinder the development in final proof.
I also find that, and this depends on the dough you’re working with, a very gentle preshape and shape are key to maintaining an open interior. If you’re rough with the dough during these times the delicate interior will quickly break down and become more dense. That said, the dough does still need enough strength through shaping to hold its shape during baking.
Sorry for the long winded answer but really all of these things are important! Each part plays into the next and overall what we’re searching for as bakers is balance. Balance between the extremes in each phase of the process.
Thanks for the great information! One question I have is when making the levain, should your starter be freshly fed or “hungry”?
You should make your levain from a starter that’s ripe and usually when you’d give it a refreshment (feeding).
Thanks for answering! I actually started an experiment in my kitchen with hungry and fed starter to see how each levain behaves. I did 35g starter, 70g AP unbleached flour and 70g filtered water. I will update with my findings 🙂
After a few hours, they were exactly the same! Too bad I can’t post a picture (or I can’t figure out how to…)
I’d be interested to see how bread baked from each would turn out, though! Likely the “hungry” one will need much more time in bulk and possibly proof. The ripe levain will have higher populations of bacteria and yeast for fermentation and should speed things along.
Hi Maurizio,
Thank you for all the great information! Could you please elaborate on different levain builds? I’ve seen some recipes call for 3 hour levains while others use an overnight 12 hour build. Is it mostly due to the ratio of starter use in the levain that speeds things up? What would be a general ratio for 3 hour and 12 hour builds?
Usually for 3 hours I do 100% inoculation (seed, the amount of starter going into the mix). For 5 hours, 50% inoculation, and for 12 hours, around 10% inoculation. This is highly dependent on the flour used and the temperature the levain is maintained at, but those are my go-to builds 🙂
Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it! I’m assuming by the type of flour you mean whole wheat/grain flours compared to white flours? Whole wheat/grain starters or levains typically rise quicker, correct?
For those, usually a mix of 50% whole grain and 50% white, or 100% type 85 flour.
Hi Maurizio. Thanks for commenting on this. Can you perhaps elaborate a bit more on your apricot lavender – walnut bread? I noticed that you build your levain for >6 hours in that recipe while you use a 100% inoculation with a 1:1:1 ratio.
Hey! Yes, that’s not a typical build for me these days. However, the CM T85 used in that levain tends to be able to handle longer than usual fermentation times, plus, the recipe itself uses a large percentage of white flour that, for me at least, can handle those extended times without issue. If I were to update that recipe, I’d probably dial back that levain build to 3-4 hours to suit most people better!
Thanks for this. When making a levain, should you use a starter at its peak? I’m struggling to find an answer as to whether this matters or you can use a starter at any point in its rising and deflating cycle.