Many sourdough bakers have experienced this situation: you planned to bake bread, but your starter passed its peak and has already started to collapse.

Can you still use it?

The good news is that in most cases, yes — you can bake bread with an overripe starter. However, the results may be slightly different depending on how far past its peak the starter is.

A sourdough starter is considered overripe when it has already reached its highest point, stopped rising, and begun to fall.

At this stage:

An overripe starter is not necessarily unhealthy. It is simply past its strongest stage.

Yes, you can.

Many bakers successfully use a starter that has begun to collapse, especially if it is only slightly past its peak.

The dough may still ferment well, although it can take longer to rise.

Using an overripe starter may result in:

The exact effect depends on how mature the starter has become.

If your starter:

it is usually better to feed it before baking.

A fresh feeding will restore yeast activity and improve fermentation strength.

If you must bake with an overripe starter:

Many excellent sourdough loaves have been made with starters that were not perfectly at peak activity.

An overripe sourdough starter is not automatically useless.

If it is only slightly past its peak, it can still produce excellent bread. However, for the strongest rise and most predictable results, many bakers prefer to use a starter at or near peak activity.

Learning to recognize the different stages of your starter will help you decide when it is ready for baking.