The Vinegar Thread

[Neko-chan]

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[Wannabefree]

I haven't gotten into vinegar making yet, but am interested

 

[ORChick]

That mead vinegar sounds wonderful! Make sure you tell us how it tastes, please.

I started with apple cider vinegar several years ago. From researching the subject I found that ACV is basically foolproof ... so that seemed like a good place for me to start. I ran a bunch of apples through my juicer (lacking which I would have used the blender or food processor), getting a couple of quarts of juice. I put this into a wide mouth gallon jar, and covered with a piece of unbleached muslin. I left it on the kitchen counter, and gave it a stir every once in awhile, and, after about 3 months (I think) it had turned into vinegar. It never did produce a *mother*, but the fact that it had turned to vinegar showed that the proper bacteria were in there, so I just used a cup of this unpasteurized, unfiltered, raw ACV as the *starter* for my next experiments. I wanted some wine vinegar, but had read that wine has sulfites added specifically to hinder the vinegar process. So I poured a bottle of inexpensive red wine into my gallon jar, and added a cup of my ACV. The ACV kickstarted the process - beating out the sulfites to get things going - and after awhile I had red wine vinegar, with a smidgen of apple. I did the the same thing with a bottle of white wine, using a cup of the new red wine vinegar, giving me a pretty pink result. Since then I have been using ACV to start more ACV, red wine vinegar to start red wine, white wine vinegar ... well, you get the idea. The wine vinegars now are pretty much pure, and the white has only a tinge of pink left.

Earlier this year one of the batches finally developed a *mother*. I used that to start a batch of malt vinegar, using a dark beer from a local microbrewery, as I am not a brewer and had none of my own. It worked, but now I'm not sure what to do with it . I haven't made fish and chips in years.

 

[Marianne]

I took the baby way of making ACV. I did the same as Neko, using the dregs and bottom inch of Braggs, then added organic apple juice.

I keep mine in a jar with a 4" opening, covered with a coffee filter secured with a rubber band. I keep mine in a cupboard and every once in a while I remember to stir it.

I also keep a small bottle of it in the frig so a mother loogie isn't constantly forming.

 

[Wannabefree]

I have GOT TO get some Braggs and get this going. I use alot of vinegar because we make alot of hot wings, and my sauce requires it, and my pepper sauce, pickles, etc. etc. I even use vinegar in some of my cakes. I really should do this