How to read hydration % - and why it changes everything

Take the total weight of water in the dough. Divide by the total weight of flour. Multiply by 100. That number is your hydration percentage. A dough with 750g water and 1000g flour is 75%. The starter you added counts toward both - if you added 200g of 100%-hydration starter, that's 100g flour and 100g water that you fold into the totals.

60-65%: stiff dough, easy to shape, dense crumb. Bagels and pretzels live here. 70-72%: classic country loaf - workable, forgiving, decent crumb opening. 75-78%: open + airy, sticky to handle, needs a couple of stretch-and-folds. 80-85%: ciabatta and high-hydration breads - serious shaping technique required, but the alveoli are spectacular. Above 85%: focaccia + flatbreads. Don't try to shape it; pour it.

Whole-grain flours absorb noticeably more water than white flour - bran is thirsty. A 75% hydration recipe with white flour will feel like 70% if you swap in whole wheat at the same weight. The crumb will be tighter and the loaf squatter. Fix: bump hydration by 5% (or pre-hydrate the bran with an autolyse step). Same recipe, different number, same result.

Tracking hydration on every bake is the fastest way to figure out what your starter and flour combination actually likes. After three or four bakes at different hydrations - all logged with rise %, ambient temperature, and an outcome rating - the answer becomes plainly visible. Sourdough Tracker has the field on every bake entry, so the chart that matters writes itself.