Who is our sourdough school & community for?
If you’ve ever experienced or felt any of the following then I’ll be able to help you overcome those obstacles and emotions in Sourdough Unchained.
- My sourdough starter never triples in volume, what am I doing wrong?
- My loaves always seem flat and never spring properly in the oven.
- No matter how hard I try I can’t produce a crumb with an open texture (holes!).
- Even though I’m using a cast iron baking pan my loaves never have an open ear.
- I’m frustrated. The recipes I’m baking work for other people but never for me.
- I can’t buy strong bread flour. How can I get the same results with all-purpose flour?
- No matter what I do my dough is always too sticky for me to manage.
- I’m bored baking run-of-the-mill recipes and want to learn how to bake more interesting loaves.
- I wish I had someone who can walk me through the process and explain where I’m going wrong.
Hi, I'm Philip
What's inside Sourdough Unchained
On demand sourdough classes
As a new member, you’ll have access to our exclusive library of pre-recorded sourdough classes to watch on-demand. Each month a new tutorial video will teach a specific aspect of sourdough baking or introduce you to a new recipe to expand your horizon.
Within the sourdough library, you’ll also find a spotlight course on re-booting your sourdough process. It includes recipe formulas and a sourdough tracker to help you record your baking session so you can get real-time feedback and help in the live sourdough clinic.
Our global community
The community sets Sourdough Unchained apart from the majority of online baking classes because information can flow both ways making the learning process complete.
As a member, you’ll be able to share the results of your baking sessions by uploading pictures, videos and PDFs to the community feed. While this makes it great fun to share your successes it also enables Phil or another member to help identify problems and quickly and easily offer advice if needed.
You can DM other members or jump into the live lounge and hold a video chat of your own. You’ll also be able to take part in our monthly sourdough community challenge.
The community is a great place to hang out and absorb yourself in all things sourdough while catching up with your fellow bakers.
The live streams
Every month we hold one live stream which has become one of the highlights of the entire program. The live format offers another perfect opportunity for information to flow freely.
The live stream includes a sourdough clinic where Phil dives deep into members’ sourdough bakes and offers advice on how to improve or overcome specific problems. Members share their experiences to help grow the knowledge within Sourdough Unchained.
Advanced recipe calculator
As a member, you’ll get your very own advanced recipe calculator (Magnus) and video classes on how to use it. Magnus makes it possible to calculate formulas with multiple types of flour, liquids, inclusions and pre-ferments making this tool extremely versatile and invaluable to the serious home sourdough baker.
Magnus also includes a reverse calculator which lets you enter the weights from your favourite recipes and convert them into baker's percentages. This enables you to adjust and scale your favourite recipes quickly and easily. But just as importantly it enables you to spot flaws in recipes before you bake them, saving time, money and dissapointment.
Learning how to design your own formulas or adjust recipes is absolutely key to being able to bake true artisan sourdough and Magnus makes the job a whole lot easier and quicker!
What our community members are saying
This sourdough community offers so much information at all levels. It is a friendly group of bakers who so willingly share their findings for the common benefit of the sourdough craft. Not only are the exchanges between members available to all, but the live Zoom meetings provide group discussion with immediate interaction. For me, the common sharing of experience, success and failure, is the most valuable input I have gained from this group. Getting on the spot information I need to better my skills is most important. The immediate interaction with other bakers who share the same goals is most rewarding.
-Paulette Landers
I'm proud to say that I've been a member of the Sourdough Unchained Community since the very beginning. Despite baking sourdough bread for more than 10 years, my boundaries were limited and there were always doubts about the ingredients and methods I was using, and nobody to discuss them with. Since becoming a member all that has changed. I am now a member of a community with a wide range of home bakers with differing levels of knowledge and experience, with members spread all over the World. We share ideas and thoughts and offer help when necessary. Phil is always on hand to help out. He reacts quickly to messages and has organised one-to-one live sessions to help members out on more than one occasion. Apart from gaining a lot of knowledge, experience and confidence, I've also gained great insight into how different cultures make sourdough bread using their local ingredients, and in very different environments. I am sure that any future member of the Sourdough Unchained Community can profit in the same way.
-Bryan E.
I've dabbled several times in the 'bake my own' sourdough space in previous years, and given up, knowing I could buy a damn good organic sourdough from a local artisan shop. As the warmer weather descended on Sydney in Nov 2022 I decided to have another go and religiously fed a new organic starter, but then didn't know what to do with it! Fortunately, while browsing for ideas, I stumbled across Phil's no-nonsense video on YouTube and his '30-min' hands-on recipe. So, I started baking. The bread was edible, but looked nothing like Phil's :-( When an opportunity came to sign up and join Phil's community, for me, it was either stopping forever or actually putting some effort in and learning to make sourdough, so I bit the bullet and joined the Sourdough Unchained community. Within a few mixes and bakes, Phil identified my issues, coached me on how to improve and Voila!, loaf after loaf of fluffy, tasty sourdough! Even my teenage sons love it! I had guests over on the weekend, one of which also wanted to learn, so when he watched me prep, prove and bake, then tasted the result, he's now a convert too. If you're serious about making great sourdough, you really can't get any better guidance and Phil's no-nonsense approach makes it easy to follow and get results.
-John Broadbent
You can hear more from our members at the bottom of the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sourdough Unchained better than an online course?
How is the sourdough content made available to me?
How often is new content added?
Do you offer a money-back guarantee?
How do I cancel if I don't like it?
What time of day are the live streams?
What happens if I can't make the live stream?
Sourdough Unchained is currently closed for new memberships.
Stay tuned because we'll be re-opening the doors in the Summer for new members! I look forward to seeing you then.
Annual Membership
$144/y
Normally $262
Monthly Membership
$16/m
Monthly members benefit from a cancel at anytime policy with zero commitment. Annual members can take advantage of our 100% 7 day money back guarantee. Just send me an email within the first seven days and I'll issue you a full refund, no questions asked.
The subscription for Sourdough Unchained is renewed and charged automatically at the beginning of each billing cycle. You can cancel at anytime by simply sending an email to [email protected]. You can read our terms and conditions by clicking here.
More from our members
Phil's sourdough unchained coaching completely changed the way I think of sourdough making. I used to put together all the ingredients, and hope it turned out nicely. But Phil helps me understand that it's more important to "decide before start". Sit down, do the research, have clear expectations in mind, and then act. In this way, you will have more control over the results. I used this method on the community challenge and created a recipe that both my family and I enjoyed. Phil's Sourdough Calculator makes recipe creation and tweaking so much easier!
I do enjoy keeping all the test bakes on record and comparing the results among different hydration and flour types. Thanks to the Sourdough Calculator, all my bakes are well-planned and organised now. I had been looking for sourdough-making guides on the internet. The results were either lack of clear explanations or too complex to follow through. Then I found Phil's Sourdough Unchained, the coaching videos answered most of my questions. I also got to ask him more questions in the live session, where he helped me design an original recipe involving rice flour.
-Qin Zhou
My biggest win since joining SU is connecting with other bakers and seeing that we all have similar failures but then we work them out together towards a beautiful loaf of bread. I really enjoy seeing what others are baking especially from across the world and how we can learn some new recipes and accompaniments to have with our breads. I feel SU is a very welcoming and supportive baking community that will help you as a baker of any experience. Phil is patient and helps with suggestions and encouragement so that you too can achieve that Instagram-worthy loaf!
-Kathy J.
I was contemplating whether I should join a coaching community when the web is already overloaded with information, and I am glad I did. The past three months have been the most enjoyable and kept me more focused. During this period, I've learned how to better manage my baking schedule, adjust my ingredient temperature and hydration to bake in different climates, maintain a vibrant starter, recognise proper fermentation and proofing, and use the calculator to adjust and design recipes. I also gained a circle of sourdough-baking friends. I particularly like the monthly challenges which expand our horizons. The discovery, experimental and implementation processes are stimulating. What a deep sense of accomplishment when I completed my Easter EGGstravagaza challenge, creating and baking my first ever recipe.
Philip helps us to tackle different problems face to face during the live Q&A sessions. Thank you for sorting out my scoring issue. I very much appreciate those times when I cannot attend that recorded programs are available. The Sourdough Lounge is the most popular, a place to interact, be inspired and build friendships. Philip’s comments are always encouraging and helpful to each one of us. Philip, you are an excellent coach. Thank you for encouraging us to use our five senses, venture out of our comfort zones, and push our boundaries from fearful to fearless. Glad I can tag along in this sourdough journey and eventually I want to be able to master sourdough baking.
-Becky Tsukishima
Sourdough from our members
