Materials
1x Storage device that can hold 0.5-1 litre of volume, Personally I use Korken
Room temperature Fresh water
Wheat flour
Fork/something to stir with
Getting the sourdough starter, started
You should not completely close the lid during this process, just put the lid down over the container but dont make it airtight.
Day 1:
Mix 50g of water with 50g of wheat flour until its a paste/doughey
Day 2:
Add 50g of water with 50g of wheat flour until its a paste/doughey
Day 3:
Add 50g of water with 50g of wheat flour until its a paste/doughey
Day 4:
Your starter should be ready by now, it should smell like a real sourdough (the smell is very distinct and dosnt smell "wrong"), the starter should be somewhat bubbly
if its not ready, remove a bit of it and add in another 50g of water with 50g of wheat flour until its a paste/doughey
if it isn't Alive by day 5, it most likely have died and you will have to start over.
Main reasons for death are usually a unclean container so too much bacteria got in, too big variations in temperature, or too cold/hot enviroment, so clean out the container and restart the process
Once you have a living sourdough, You will need to keep it alive, this is done by "Feeding" it.
Personally, I keep about 100g of sourdough in my fridge at all times, and I bake new bread once every week. so my "food" is 100g wheat, 100g water, and I will then use that for my next batch of bread, while leaving about 100g in the container.
You can also keep a larger/smaller starter depending on your needs, realistically, I keep "a lot" considering how little I bake, 25-50g would be plenty enough to use as a base starter.
If you keep it on the counter, you will need to feed it every 1-2 days
If you keep it in the fridge, you will need to feed it every 7-10 days
If you keep it in the freezer, it can last for a few weeks before you need to thaw it out (by puttig in in the fridge) and then re-feed it