If your sourdough is too wet, too dense, impossible to shape, or simply refuses to develop those beautiful open air holes, hydration may be part of the problem.
But there is a common mistake beginners make: assuming that a higher hydration percentage automatically produces better sourdough.
It doesn’t.
A 65% hydration dough can make excellent bread. A 70% dough can be considerably easier for a beginner to handle. A 75% dough can produce a beautiful open crumb when the flour and fermentation are right. And an 80% dough can be either spectacular or completely unmanageable depending on the flour, temperature, fermentation, and technique.
The goal isn’t to find the highest hydration you can handle.
The goal is to find the hydration that gives you the texture you want while still allowing you to control the dough. Our free sourdough hydration calculator turns a flour weight and hydration percentage into the exact water, starter, and salt you need in seconds.
What Does Sourdough Hydration Actually Mean?
Hydration is simply the amount of water compared with the amount of flour, expressed as a percentage.
The basic formula is:
Hydration % = (weight of water ÷ weight of flour) × 100
For example, if a recipe contains:
- 500 g flour
- 350 g water
then:
350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70% hydration
So a 70% hydration sourdough contains 350 g of water for every 500 g of flour.
This is part of baker’s percentages, where flour is always treated as 100%.
One important detail: when calculating the hydration of a sourdough recipe, you should normally include the flour and water contained in your starter.
For example, if you use 100 g of a 100%-hydration starter, that starter contributes approximately 50 g flour and 50 g water.
That means hydration calculations can be slightly different from simply looking at the water listed in the recipe.
So, What’s the Best Hydration Level for Sourdough?
There isn’t one universal “best” hydration.
For most beginners, 65% to 70% is a sensible starting range.
If you’re comfortable handling dough and want a more open crumb, moving toward 70% to 75% can make sense.
Hydration around 75% to 80% and above becomes increasingly dependent on flour strength and technique.
A useful starting chart looks like this:
| Hydration | General character | Beginner difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| 60-65% | Firm, easy to shape | Easy |
| 65-68% | Moderately soft | Easy |
| 68-70% | Soft but manageable | Easy-moderate |
| 70-75% | More extensible, potentially open crumb | Moderate |
| 75-78% | Wet and demanding | Moderate-hard |
| 78-80%+ | Very wet, highly technique-dependent | Hard |
These aren’t strict categories. Flour type, protein content, whole-grain percentage, fermentation, temperature, and mixing technique can completely change how a dough behaves.
Is 65% Hydration Too Low?
No.
A 65% hydration sourdough is not “bad” or automatically inferior.
Lower hydration gives you a dough that is generally firmer, easier to shape, and easier to score. It can also be useful when learning fermentation because the dough is less likely to spread dramatically.
This is one reason low hydration sourdough can be excellent for beginners.
The trade-off is that lower hydration may produce a tighter crumb than a well-fermented higher-hydration dough. But crumb structure isn’t determined by hydration alone.
A well-fermented 65% loaf can be much better than a poorly fermented 80% loaf.
Is 80% Hydration Too High?
Not necessarily.
An 80% hydration sourdough is achievable, but it isn’t the logical starting point for most beginners.
At this hydration, dough handling becomes significantly more important. Strong bread flour can absorb and hold considerably more water than weak flour. Whole-grain flour can also change water absorption substantially.
If your 80% dough behaves like batter, adding more folds isn’t necessarily the answer. The flour may simply not have enough strength to support that amount of water.
Beginners can make 80% hydration bread, but learning dough strength and fermentation first makes the process much easier.
Beginner Sourdough Hydration: Where Should You Start?
For a first loaf, I’d start around 68% to 70% hydration.
For example:
- 500 g flour
- 350 g water
- 100 g 100%-hydration starter
- 10 g salt
The starter contributes approximately 50 g flour and 50 g water, so the true hydration calculation becomes:
550 g total flour (500 g flour + 50 g starter flour).
Water is 350 g + 50 g starter water = 400 g.
400 ÷ 550 × 100 = approximately 73% total hydration.
This illustrates why recipe hydration can be confusing if the starter isn’t included.
If you want a precise 70% total hydration, calculate using the flour and water from every component.
A Simple 68% Hydration Sourdough
For a straightforward beginner loaf, you can formulate a dough around 68% total hydration.
Use approximately:
- 500 g flour
- 325-350 g water, adjusted according to the starter and flour
- 100 g active starter
- 10 g salt
Mix until the flour is fully hydrated, allow an initial rest, then develop strength through folds during bulk fermentation.
Don’t obsess over the exact clock.
Watch the dough.
You want fermentation, strength, elasticity, and expansion to develop together.
What About 70% and 75% Hydration?
A 70% hydration dough is a useful middle ground.
It has enough water to produce a soft, extensible dough without immediately becoming extremely difficult to handle.
At 75%, the dough becomes more demanding but can produce excellent results with suitable flour and good fermentation.
The important point is that 75% isn’t inherently better than 70%.
If you get a strong, well-shaped 70% loaf with a pleasant crumb, increasing hydration just for the sake of increasing it may accomplish nothing.
How Do You Get Big Air Holes in Sourdough?
Large air holes are usually the result of several factors working together:
- Strong gluten development
- Appropriate hydration
- Proper bulk fermentation
- Active starter
- Gentle shaping
- Adequate oven spring
- Suitable flour
Hydration helps because water makes dough more extensible. But pouring more water into the dough doesn’t automatically create a larger crumb.
If you want an open crumb, focus on fermentation and dough strength before chasing 80% hydration.
During shaping, avoid aggressively pressing all the gas out of the dough. At the same time, don’t deliberately create giant tunnels. An excellent loaf generally has a mixture of crumb sizes rather than enormous holes everywhere.
Why Isn’t My Sourdough Getting Air Holes?
If your bread has a dense or closed crumb, don’t immediately blame hydration.
Common causes include:
- Under-fermentation
- Over-fermentation
- Weak starter
- Insufficient dough strength
- Excessively aggressive shaping
- Weak flour
- Incorrect proofing
- Poor oven spring
A very wet dough can actually make the problem harder to diagnose because beginners often mistake “wet” for “well fermented.”
You can have an extremely wet dough with poor gluten structure and poor gas retention.
High Hydration vs. Low Hydration: What Is the Trade-Off?
Higher hydration generally gives you a softer, more extensible dough. It can make an open crumb easier to achieve when everything else is correct.
The downside is handling.
High-hydration dough can:
- Stick to your hands
- Stick to the bench
- Spread during shaping
- Become difficult to score
- Lose structure if over-fermented
- Require stronger flour
- Demand better fermentation judgment
Lower hydration has almost the opposite characteristics.
It is easier to shape, easier to score, and more forgiving mechanically, although it may produce a tighter crumb.
That’s why some bakers deliberately prefer lower hydration. They’re optimizing for control, consistency, and a particular bread style rather than maximum openness.
How to Handle Sticky High-Hydration Dough
Don’t solve every sticky-dough problem by adding flour.
Instead, try:
- Wetting your hands
- Using a dough scraper
- Performing folds during bulk fermentation
- Giving the dough sufficient rest
- Building gluten gradually
- Using a lightly floured surface only when necessary
Repeatedly adding flour changes the recipe and lowers the actual hydration.
If the dough starts at 75% hydration and you keep adding flour during shaping, you’re effectively creating a different dough.
How Hydration Changes Bulk Fermentation
Hydration interacts with fermentation rather than determining fermentation time by itself.
Temperature is especially important.
A warm dough generally ferments faster than a cool dough. Starter strength, inoculation percentage, flour composition, and dough temperature also matter.
For an overnight sourdough schedule, one practical approach is:
Evening: mix dough and begin bulk fermentation
Evening/night: strengthen dough with folds and monitor expansion
Night: shape and refrigerate
Morning: preheat oven, score, and bake
The exact schedule depends heavily on room and dough temperature.
A fixed “bulk for exactly six hours” rule is less reliable than observing the dough.
Can You Bake Sourdough Before Work?
Yes.
An overnight cold proof is one of the easiest ways to fit sourdough around a 9-to-5 schedule.
You can prepare the dough after work, complete bulk fermentation and shaping in the evening, refrigerate the shaped loaf overnight, and bake it in the morning.
This also makes sourdough considerably more practical for people with full-time jobs.
The important variable is not whether you work 9-to-5.
It is whether your fermentation schedule matches your kitchen temperature and starter activity.
After-Work and Before-Work Baking Schedule
A practical routine might look like:
6:00 PM: mix dough
6:30-9:30 PM: bulk fermentation and strengthening
9:30 PM: shape
10:00 PM: refrigerate
6:30 AM: preheat oven
7:00 AM: bake
8:00 AM: leave for work
This is only a template.
If your kitchen is warm, fermentation may finish sooner. If it is cold, it may take longer.
Autolyse and Hydration
Autolyse can help flour absorb water and begin gluten development before salt and starter are added.
A basic autolyse might last somewhere around 20-60 minutes, although there is no universal requirement.
Higher-hydration dough may benefit from a deliberate hydration and gluten-development strategy, but longer isn’t automatically better.
You can also skip a traditional autolyse and use other mixing methods.
The important thing is understanding what the rest is accomplishing rather than treating it as mandatory ritual.
Stretch and Folds at High Hydration
High-hydration dough often benefits from repeated strengthening during bulk fermentation.
Instead of aggressively kneading a wet dough, you can use:
- Stretch and folds
- Coil folds
- Gentle folds
- Periods of rest between strengthening sessions
The dough should progressively become smoother, stronger, and better at holding its shape.
If every fold makes the dough worse, investigate fermentation and flour strength instead of simply adding more folds.
Flour Matters More Than Many Beginners Realize
The same hydration percentage can behave completely differently with different flour.
Strong bread flour generally handles high hydration better than weak flour.
Whole-wheat and whole-grain flours absorb water differently and can alter gluten development.
For high-hydration sourdough, choose flour based on its ability to absorb and retain water rather than choosing a percentage because someone online says it produces the “best” crumb.
This is one reason professional bakeries can work with doughs that seem impossibly wet to a beginner: their flour, formulas, equipment, fermentation control, and handling systems are designed around those doughs.
There is no single professional hydration percentage.
Does Hydration Change Sourdough Taste?
Indirectly, yes.
Hydration affects fermentation behavior and dough structure, and fermentation strongly influences flavor.
But saying “higher hydration tastes better” is too simplistic.
A baker can use different hydration levels to produce different textures and fermentation characteristics without one being objectively superior.
Flavor also depends on starter maturity, fermentation time, temperature, flour, salt, and baking.
Hydration and Baking Time
Hydration can affect baking because water has to leave the dough during baking.
A wetter dough may require different baking management than a firmer dough.
However, there isn’t a universal rule such as “add exactly 10 minutes for every 5% hydration.”
Loaf size, oven temperature, flour, crust preference, and baking method all matter.
A Dutch oven is particularly useful because it traps steam during the early part of baking. That supports crust development and oven spring.
Can You Adjust Hydration Mid-Recipe?
Yes, but carefully.
If dough is clearly too stiff early in mixing, you can add water gradually.
This is often called bassinage when water is incorporated later in mixing.
Don’t pour a large quantity of water into a developed dough and expect it to instantly absorb it.
Add small amounts, mix thoroughly, and allow the dough to develop structure.
The opposite problem is more difficult.
If your dough is already extremely wet, adding significant flour late in the process changes the formula. It may still save the loaf, but the result will no longer match your original hydration calculation.
Temperature and Humidity Matter
Hydration isn’t experienced in isolation.
Room temperature changes fermentation speed.
Humidity can affect the surface of dough and the amount of flour or moisture you need during handling, although humidity isn’t simply added into the baker’s-percentage hydration calculation.
Your flour also changes with storage conditions.
That’s why experienced bakers often make small adjustments based on how the dough actually feels.
The recipe provides a starting point.
The dough provides the feedback.
Hydration by Bread Style
Different bread styles naturally use different hydration strategies.
A sandwich-style sourdough may benefit from a relatively moderate hydration because easy slicing and a consistent crumb are priorities.
A rustic country loaf may use substantially more water.
Ciabatta is famous for very wet dough.
Bagel dough sits on the much firmer side.
So asking for the “correct sourdough hydration” without specifying the bread style is incomplete.
The desired result determines the useful hydration range.
Sourdough Hydration and Shelf Life
Hydration can influence how bread feels over time because moisture affects crumb texture and staling.
Higher-hydration bread can retain a softer interior, but shelf life is also affected by flour, baking, storage, contamination, and packaging.
Don’t assume that increasing water automatically means bread will stay fresh indefinitely.
Proper cooling and storage matter.
Sourdough Hydration and Oven Spring
Oven spring comes from expanding gases, steam, and the structure of the dough.
Hydration can contribute to extensibility, but oven spring depends on much more.
A well-fermented 70% dough can have excellent oven spring.
An over-fermented 80% dough can collapse.
If your loaf spreads flat instead of rising, investigate fermentation and dough strength before automatically reducing or increasing hydration.
78% Hydration: Is That High?
Yes, compared with the hydration used in many beginner sourdough formulas, 78% is high.
But whether it is “too high” depends on the flour and intended bread.
With strong flour and experienced handling, it can be completely workable.
With weak flour and poor fermentation control, it may be extremely difficult.
Sourdough Hydration Quick Reference
For practical decision-making:
First loaf: around 65-70%
Easy everyday loaf: around 68-72%
More open crumb: around 70-75%
Advanced high hydration: around 75-80%+
Very wet specialty doughs: potentially above 80%
These are working ranges, not laws.
Common Beginner Hydration Mistakes
The biggest mistakes I see in hydration discussions are:
Mistake 1: Chasing giant holes. Open crumb is not the same thing as good bread.
Mistake 2: Copying a percentage without copying the flour. Hydration depends heavily on flour absorption.
Mistake 3: Ignoring the starter. Starter contributes both flour and water.
Mistake 4: Adding flour every time dough feels sticky. Stickiness isn’t automatically a problem.
Mistake 5: Blaming hydration for fermentation problems. Under-proofed and over-proofed dough can both produce disappointing crumb.
Mistake 6: Treating recipe times as absolute. Temperature changes fermentation.
Mistake 7: Jumping directly from 65% to 80%. Learning progressively is easier.
Should You Use Oil?
Oil changes dough behavior differently from water.
Water primarily affects hydration and gluten development. Oil contributes fat, which can tenderize the crumb and alter extensibility and handling.
If you’re learning traditional lean sourdough, start with flour, water, starter, and salt.
Once you understand the basic dough, experiment with enriched formulas separately.
What Hydration Should You Choose?
Here’s the simplest decision tree:
Want maximum control? Start around 65-68%.
You’re a beginner but want a reasonably open crumb? Try around 68-70%.
You’ve mastered fermentation and shaping? Experiment around 70-75%.
You want to work with very wet dough? Explore 75-80% and beyond using strong flour.
Don’t increase hydration simply because a photograph online has enormous holes.
The Most Important Lesson About Sourdough Hydration
Hydration is a tool, not a trophy.
A higher percentage doesn’t automatically mean better sourdough.
If your dough is too wet, the answer might be less water. It might also be stronger flour, better gluten development, shorter fermentation, lower temperature, or improved shaping.
If your bread has a closed crumb, the answer might be more water. But it might also be better fermentation, a stronger starter, gentler shaping, or improved oven spring.
That’s why changing hydration should be an experiment, not a panic reaction.
Start around 68-70%, learn how your flour behaves, monitor fermentation, and change one variable at a time.
Once you can reliably make a good loaf at 70%, move toward 72%, then 75% if you want to explore a more open crumb.
That progression teaches you far more than jumping straight to 80%.
Final Takeaway
If you’re wondering how much water to use in sourdough, start with the result you want.
For most beginners, 65-70% hydration is a practical starting point. Around 70-75% gives you more room to pursue an open crumb while demanding better dough handling. 78-80%+ is possible, but flour strength, fermentation, temperature, and technique become increasingly important.
Calculate hydration using baker’s percentages, remember to account for the water and flour in your starter, and judge your dough by its behavior rather than the number printed in someone else’s recipe.
The best hydration level isn’t the highest one.
It’s the level you can ferment, strengthen, shape, score, and bake successfully into the bread you actually want to eat.
Free baking tools
Pair the guide above with the right calculator for the job:
- Sourdough hydration calculator — turn a flour weight and hydration into exact water, starter, and salt.
- Oven temperature converter — flip between Celsius, Fahrenheit, and gas marks.
- Cooking converter — convert grams, cups, and spoons for common ingredients.
- Percentage calculator — for the starter math and Baker percentage sums.
Calculate your sourdough hydration free — pick a hydration level, and get the exact water, starter, and salt for your flour weight in seconds. It runs 100% in your browser. See all of our free calculators.
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