Makng Vinegar... On purpose

[StoneArcher]

I know that this is a wine forum, Iv'e looked for a vinegar one with no avail on HBT.com.

I am just looking for a show of hands of who makes vinegar. From anything. Your wine or mead is preferred but, if you make it at all raise your hand. I'm going to start. I am thinking of making it with the little amounts that I have left over.

For example, when I go from primary to secondary I usually have overshot my secondary by a half gallon or so on larger batches. I usually put that in growlers or whatever for the first carboy to carboy racking (into ternary). But then after that, I don't want smaller containers trailing my larger batches since I loose very little from rack to rack and space is a premium.

I was thinking if I make vinegar from those half gallons or so, that would be better than quenching my sinks thirst, right? Ok: before you go berzerk on me for dumping early wine; I only dump if I can't get no headspace on a half gallon growler. That's the stuff I would now make wine from.

If there is enough folks who do make vinegar, maybe a forum addition down by the cheese making and meat smoking would be in order. If not, I will ask my questions on a different vinegar making forum all together. Not a huge deal, I just like the community here is all.

I haven't been here long. I made an account only after reading for a few months or so. I can't speak if this topic comes up from time to time or not.

Thanks!

 

[Homercidal]

A friend of mine tried making apple cider vinegar a couple of years ago and I don't think he ended up having any luck with his attempt. From what I've read it's really not that hard to do. Not sure what happened to his.

I use it so infrequently that I just tend to buy what I need at the store.

 

[stpug]

I've made red wine vinegar from cheap bottles of red wine and remnants of wine left overs. I basically started with a bottle of cheap red wine and added a couple tablespoons of Braggs Cider Vinegar w/ Mother (the "mother" is what you're after) to give it a boost. As it turns out, the process for me was very slow; I guess acetobacter is slow bug. I lost a lot of volume to evaporation (an aerobic process) but did make a couple gallons of red wine vinegar over time. What was produced was spectacular (from a vinegar standpoint) with deep rich flavors and a serious acidic kick. My understanding is that it is an aerobic process requiring air and also temperature dependent (80-85F); I think my slow process was caused by only having 70-74F temps to work with. I'll be interested in hearing how yours works out.

 

[StoneArcher]

I used to make it years ago with leftover red wine wine. Well... Truth be told, it would make itself on accident from leftover wine that I then put by the stove to cook with. I stumbled on it when I took a swig, and it was vinegar-esque. Not fully there, but totally evident it was on the track to becoming. Vinegar seems like it's relatively easy to make, especially from a winemakers perspective. Heck, we fight making it all the time!

We cook with a lot of wine at my house, and I absolutely love vinegar. I used to use a ridiculous amount of Mizkan brand vinegars. (Nakano, Holland House, Mitsukan, Barengo) A place I used to work at used to get samples from doing ad campaigns from them from time to time, so I got to try it for free. Then of course I would get hooked and have to buy a box full...

Now since starting to making my own wine, I want to make vinegar from the ground up as well. Eventually I want to infuse the vinegars with the herbs that we grow. Or make spiced vinegars. I know that botulism is a threat when adding herbs, but some education will solve me of that threat. In time. Vinegar first.

A lot of my family members do pickling with vinegar. I think that maybe some pickling will be good with a high quality speciality vinegar as well.

I am going to start in a month or so, reading all I can. Just gauging interest on here.

Thanks folks!

 

[jensmith]

There is a free kindle book ( amazon) on making your own apple cider viniger. My sister even tried out the wine to vineger recipie. It worked. Kinda weak in the viniger, but maybe she just used it too soon. My Dads buddies have a barrel of starting to turn hard cider. I plan on stealing it and letting go all the way to viniger.