Great and clear instructions.

I had been making regular bread for a few months when I decided to try my hand at sourdough.
I researched a lot and came accross this handy packet from amazon.
It turned out PERFECT.
Some advice and results:
1. use the QR code on the back. I followed the video's directions exactly, and by day 4 I had an amazing starter going. Watch the videos. The guy in them makes it look easy, and it really is!
2. Get yourself some decent sized jars. I ended up with a lot of starter and I like to keep it at a pretty decent sized level.
3. My first few bakes came out perfect. The taste was impeccable and I researched online to find ideas on how to make a loaf more or less sour.
4. I ended up sharing some of my very active healthy starter with family members and they too went on to make great loaves.
5. I have also made things from non-fed starter (internet recipes) and everything came out great.

After a couple of months using this starter, this is an easy no-brainer. It's perfect!

There are really only a few questions that need to be answered for this product: (1) is it easy to get going and maintain, (2) did it work, and (3) does it taste good. Overall, I am very pleased with this sourdough starter. Before I give a more detailed review, I will give a quick summary addressing the main points:

(1) It was easy to activate and is easy to maintain

(2) Works just fine, with the caveat that I'm still trying to get a good rise out of it. This is not a biggie because I am using flours and grains that normally result in a fairly dense bread. The starter can get quite active and bubbly, so I think I'll be able to do better. I will update this review if needed (I will be making some experiments with stone ground whole wheat soon). Edited 9/20/12: it really does seem to be me--I tried using regular bakers yeast as the leavening (using the starter just for savor) and actually lost ground.

(3) It is yummy--I've gotten really good tastes from mixing oat bran and rye into the base barley feed I give it. Edited 9/17/12: I got this starter during a Summer warm spell--under those conditions, which seem to have favored the production of lactic acid, it had a very fruity smell and taste, now that things are cooling down, it's developed a more vinegary taste and aroma. I've also experimented with adding some chickpea flour (besan) into the feedings and that resulted in an interesting tang too.

I have had a fair amount of experience with sourdough starters, including making them from scratch, but recently when I decided I wanted to do some baking with rye and barley, didn't have any on hand, and definitely didn't want to go the DIY route, so I was happy to see that it was so easy to find online sources--though it should be noted that this particular starter is not advertised to be suitable for grains other than wheat. Breadtopia sends a package that contains enough dried starter crumbs to make three attempts to get a starter going (or to keep around as a backup if you lose one through neglect or it goes bad). There are also instructions included--I was relieved to see that unlike some other starters I've used, this one did not have a complex activation process or feeding cycle. In this case, I chose to see if I could activate the starter using the same barley flour I was going to use for baking and it worked just fine, with a few deviations from the script Breadtopia provided-- I added at least twice the water, possibly this was necessary due to the fact I was using a different kind of flour and grain, but I think Breadtopia's bakers prefer a spongier texture for their starter, while I made adjustments to reflect my experience that starters do best with a slurrylike consistency. The main difference was that the timing was accelerated--in my kitchen and with the Sustagrain barley flour as a food, everything happened in about half the time stipulated in the instructions. This could well have been due to the fact that my kitchen was fairly warm, ranging from the low 70s to low 80s. You can tell that it's activated because it bubbles almost to the point of simmering, but it does take some time or a few more feeding cycles to get a good sour flavor. Also, regarding taste, I preferred the flavor when I added some rye or oat bran into the feed.

Starter was bubbly and rising on the 3rd day, haven't baked yet, can't wait to bake this week. It came with clear instructions, delivered pretty fast!

Their starters are the most reliable ones that I've used. All the others I've tried fail.