What pH levels should I target for sourdough starter and dough?
A good anchor: a ripe starter should measure below pH 4.2, and a typical dough starts around pH 6.0 and drops as fermentation progresses. The exact targets depend on your flour and starter, so measure at every stage of a bake you are happy with and use those values as your personal breakpoints. The book has a full pH section with example tables: https://www.the-sourdough-framework.com/wheat-sourdough
Answered by Hendrik, The Bread Code
From the book
Another more expensive option is to use a pH meter to monitor your dough’s fermentation state. As the lactic and acetic acid bacteria ferment, more acidity is piled up inside your dough. The acidity value (pH) can be measured using such a meter. The more acidity, the lower the pH value of your dough. The pH scale is logarithmic, meaning that each digit change will have a 10x increase in acidity. A sourdough dough might begin fermenting at pH 6.0, then shortly before baking has roughly pH 4.0. This means that the dough itself is 10x times 10x (= 100x) sourer than at the beginning. By using the meter, you can always judge the state of your dough’s acidification and then act accordingly.
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