Home made vinegars?

Anybody else make their own vinegars? I do and find the results to be infinitely superior to store bought. If so, tell what you started with and how it turned out...

Kind of a side question, and I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but is it ok to store active (live mother) vinegars in the same general area as beer supplies/fermenting batches/stored bottles (ie both in the basement, albeit away from each other) or would you keep them as far away as possible?

I have a couple of batches of vinegar under my belt. I did a cider vinegar using some oaked cider that was a bit too oaky for my tastes that turned out really good. I currently have a malt vinegar in the works. I am about to sample it to see if it is ready yet.

This seems interesting. I am sure the powers of google can show me a lot. Any site in particular I should head to though about how to get started?

MultumInParvo said:

This seems interesting. I am sure the powers of google can show me a lot. Any site in particular I should head to though about how to get started?

Click to expand...

Not sure about any site in particular; I just learned from working at a restaurant where we made our own. It's super easy, just grab a bottle of unpasteurized vinegar (with mother) and mix with whatever you'd like to make into vinegar, eventually it will generate a nice amount of mother that you can use for other vinegars. My favorite is a Clos Normand cider vinegar, it always turns out really well, and the flavor is awesome. I do admit I look forward to making my own out of beer I've brewed. PM or just ask here if you want any details.

Beer vinegar! I've not tried it yet, but I came across a blog by Michael Ruhlman where he talks about it. It's incredibly easy. Pour half a gallon of beer into a container, stir vigorously, let sit for 6 hours, cover with a cheese cloth and let it sit in the kitchen for 6 months. You can use a mother too if you want to be a bit on the safer side. That reminds me, I need to convince my wife that the fruit flies in the kitchen will be worth it.

Beer Vinegar & Food As Solace | Michael Ruhlman

My malt vinegar, which is pretty much ready, was made with an unhopped beer I made from extra light DME. It fermented out to about 6% ABV and I infected it with a bit of mother that I saved from my cider vinegar. I am actually going to have it on my lunch of homemade fries in a few minutes!

Here is the vinegar:



You can see the mother floating around at the bottom.

And my lunch...

BraveSirRobin said:

Beer vinegar! I've not tried it yet, but I came across a blog by Michael Ruhlman where he talks about it. It's incredibly easy. Pour half a gallon of beer into a container, stir vigorously, let sit for 6 hours, cover with a cheese cloth and let it sit in the kitchen for 6 months. You can use a mother too if you want to be a bit on the safer side. That reminds me, I need to convince my wife that the fruit flies in the kitchen will be worth it.

Beer Vinegar & Food As Solace | Michael Ruhlman

Click to expand...

Don't worry about fruit flies if you have them covered. I worked at a restaurant where we made our own vinegars (it may or may not have been mentioned in Ruhlman's article ) and we had about 5 carboys plus a couple oak barrels of various different vinegars aging, and I never saw a fruit fly. Just keep em covered.

Also, mr_goodwrench... Here's my vinegars, an Ommegang Hennepin and a bit of Clos Normand (also have a Louis Jadot Beaujolais that I'm not sure if I love or hate.)



I'm running a bit low at the moment. Got some serious mother though...
Also, Nice lunch! Some mayo or aioli and you're set with those frites.

Cut and paste to see a video on making your own mother for home vinegar making purposes using nothing but sugar, water, and a banana peal stuck in a bottle and hung in a tree is something else. I am just going to take the guy's word for it. Shortly after watching it, I actually had someone ask me if I knew what malt vinegar was. I went into the full description, fly parts and all. That person probably didn't want that much detail. It's a messy world we live in.

(This is someone else's video- if this is an issue, maybe someone can tell me how to only post an address so that it does not become a link and potentially cause a copyright issue.)