Hydration calculator

Sourdough hydration is the percentage of total water to total flour in the dough, including the starter. It is helpful to know this so you can better predict bulk rise timing as well as understanding the fundamentals of the process. The more you understand the ‘why’ to each step the better you can troubleshoot and master the process.

To calculate the hydration in sourdough, simply divide the amount of water by the amount of flour and then times by 100 to get the percentage. Be sure you are also calculating the amount of water and flour in the starter. The math isn’t too difficult but to make things easy for you, here’s a hydration calculator.

For example, if your starter is fed 50g water and 50g flour, your recipe is 350 water and 500g flour, the TOTAL water would be 400g and TOTAL flour would be 550.