Vinegar- anybody make it?

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Yooper

Yooper

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I was thinking again about making vinegar. I'd have to buy a "mother" since I can't find any live vinegar in any of the stores but it seems easy enough.

I'm just a little concerned about cross-contamination with my wines and beers. Does anybody else make vinegars (cider, white wine, red wine, malt vinegar) and have any words of advice?
 
I've made malt, wine and cider vinegars, I have a 5 gallon batch of cider vinegar going right now. It's easy and you can make it in a corner of your house or garage well away from your beer.
Back in the early 90's when I was much stupider I turned a batch of crappy beer into wonderful malt vinegar-in a keg. A year later i bottled the vinegar, cleaned the keg as normal and put it back into rotation. By that time I had a batch of apple cider vinegar going in a keg also. When it was done I cleaned and sanitized it as normal. I still use both of those kegs and have not even broken them down to change the o-rings and I've never had an infected batch of beer. I don't recommend that process, today I use my carboys for vinegar, but I'm not so sure we have to worry so much about cross contamination.
 
I do malt vinegar in growlers occasionally. I started the original by leaving a half-full growler out with cheesecloth covering the mouth. It started going acetic pretty quickly, and then I just covered it with foil and left it for a few months. I used a little of the original in my next batch, and so on.
 
I just came back from the store with Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar.

I assume I can just let it sit, and then pour off the vinegar into another container to save the mother? And then add my chosen alcoholic liquid?

I was thinking that I"d make a yeast starter and then decant the spent wort to make malt vinegar. Or use some leftover dinner wine (with some water to reduce the ABV) to make wine vinegar.
 
My friend Tom made (or tried to, I never did find out how it went) apple cider vinegar. I think he just bought some fresh apple cider and let it sit out on the porch with the cap off for a bit then let it ferment and turn sour. He brought it into the fridge after the weather got too cold and let it turn to vinegar real slow, and just kept uncapping to let pressure out once in a while.

I thought about it myself, but a small bottle of malt vinegar last me many months. I use white vinegar for household projects, not for cooking.
 
Homercidal said:
My friend Tom made (or tried to, I never did find out how it went) apple cider vinegar. I think he just bought some fresh apple cider and let it sit out on the porch with the cap off for a bit then let it ferment and turn sour. He brought it into the fridge after the weather got too cold and let it turn to vinegar real slow, and just kept uncapping to let pressure out once in a while.

I thought about it myself, but a small bottle of malt vinegar last me many months. I use white vinegar for household projects, not for cooking.
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grill more pork. I have a spraybottle filled with apple cider vinegar that gets used often. This weekend I'll go through a bunch of it... grillfest!

Vinegar is great on fries. Get one of these and you're making your own:

 
We sometimes buy a cheap brand of wine and occasionally get a bad bottle. When we do, I leave it by the livingroom window with the top off for a few months and it turns into vinegar on its own. I taste it every so often after the first month to see where it's at and move it to a container when it's ready.

What is a "vinegar mother" and what are the benefits? Does it go quicker?
 
Homercidal said:
My friend Tom made (or tried to, I never did find out how it went) apple cider vinegar. I think he just bought some fresh apple cider and let it sit out on the porch with the cap off for a bit then let it ferment and turn sour. He brought it into the fridge after the weather got too cold and let it turn to vinegar real slow, and just kept uncapping to let pressure out once in a while.

I thought about it myself, but a small bottle of malt vinegar last me many months. I use white vinegar for household projects, not for cooking.
Click to expand...

Anyone else do vinegar "shots"? I just love the stuff and actually crave it! I think I drink more of it than I use for anything else.
 
Airborneguy said:
We sometimes buy a cheap brand of wine and occasionally get a bad bottle. When we do, I leave it by the livingroom window with the top off for a few months and it turns into vinegar on its own. I taste it every so often after the first month to see where it's at and move it to a container when it's ready.

What is a "vinegar mother" and what are the benefits? Does it go quicker?
Click to expand...
The mother is what you made when you let the bacteria get into the bottle-it's essentially a starter. I've done it that way but you have no control over the other wild bugs that can get into your starter. I had a batch of malt vinegar that tasted like turpentine after a year. If you buy live vinegar or a mother you are getting primarily acetobacter.
I have a BIL in France who makes vinegar, but he won't use cheap wine. His philosophy is crappy wine makes crappy vinegar so he will spend $30-40 for good Bordeaux bottles.
 
Yooper said:
I just came back from the store with Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar.

I assume I can just let it sit, and then pour off the vinegar into another container to save the mother? And then add my chosen alcoholic liquid?

I was thinking that I"d make a yeast starter and then decant the spent wort to make malt vinegar. Or use some leftover dinner wine (with some water to reduce the ABV) to make wine vinegar.
Click to expand...

Our grocery had the Bragg's. I did like you said and poured some leftover wine on top of the mother. It has been a few weeks and it seems like its doing nothing. I didn't dilute the wine. Think that could be a problem? Anyone have success with this?
 
lschiavo said:
Anyone else do vinegar "shots"? I just love the stuff and actually crave it! I think I drink more of it than I use for anything else.
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I was taking shots often until i started brewing kombucha.I think its a superier energy drink which i replaced drinking those with too.Its got amazing health properties and makes you feel awesome.You can turn kombucha into vinegar by neglecting it which i almost did from letting it ferment too long,it was just reall tart/sour but that warmth goes straight to the places you need it most.
Oh and flush your teeth or brush them,this stuff can erode enamal.Probably why doing shots is better than diluting acv in water and drinking it.
 
lschiavo said:
Our grocery had the Bragg's. I did like you said and poured some leftover wine on top of the mother. It has been a few weeks and it seems like its doing nothing. I didn't dilute the wine. Think that could be a problem? Anyone have success with this?
Click to expand...

Give it a month.
 
The malt vinegar came out really good! Except.........I forgot to decant my starter into it, and so just used beer. So, the malt vinegar is hopped. I gave lschiavo a shot of it today, and he also said it was good!

I'm going to use some on fish this weekend- I LOVE a fish fry with malt vinegar!
 
So Yoop, what don't you do at home now? Beer, wine, cheese, vinegar, ... are you raising your own cattle yet? :D

BTW, I'm totally gonna do that with the starter decant!
 
Brewing Clamper said:
So Yoop, what don't you do at home now? Beer, wine, cheese, vinegar, ... are you raising your own cattle yet? :D

BTW, I'm totally gonna do that with the starter decant!
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Oh, no. No cattle! Now, the goats on the other hand.............;)

We live in town, so aside from a big yard with fruit trees, a garden, a green house, a little fish pond, 6 hops plants, and assorted yard stuff, we don't have much out there. The goat's milk comes from a herd we have a "share" in, but we're stopping that since I'm not making cheese much any more.

I AM gearing up for hunting season, though! Small game starts September 15, and archery deer season starts October 1!

Let's see- making soap (including detergent for laundry and shampoo), bath salts and the like, cheese, beer, wine, and now vinegar, hunting and fishing. That's about it, really!
 
lschiavo said:
Anyone else do vinegar "shots"? I just love the stuff and actually crave it! I think I drink more of it than I use for anything else.
Click to expand...

I keep a bottle of Bragg's around and whenever I have heartburn I do a shot, knocks my heartburn out in seconds!
 
Hey Yooper,
I saw this thread about a month ago and so I decided to decant my starter wort into a jug and add a bit of un-pasteurized apple cider vinegar as well. I'm thinking its about done now, but I'm not sure what to do with the mother when I decant it off. I don't have anything else right now to put it in and I have a friend who "wants a piece of my mother" as he put it... Anyway, how do you store this thing? I have a really nice looking round, slimy disc and I don't want it to go to waste. I haven't tried the vinegar yet, but it certainly smells the part.

Also, do you pasteurize it to stop the process?

I also actually thought about doing some with finished beer. Maybe some malt vinegar made from IIPA or something. Sounds tasty to me!
 
ajwillys said:
Hey Yooper,
I saw this thread about a month ago and so I decided to decant my starter wort into a jug and add a bit of un-pasteurized apple cider vinegar as well. I'm thinking its about done now, but I'm not sure what to do with the mother when I decant it off. I don't have anything else right now to put it in and I have a friend who "wants a piece of my mother" as he put it... Anyway, how do you store this thing? I have a really nice looking round, slimy disc and I don't want it to go to waste. I haven't tried the vinegar yet, but it certainly smells the part.

Also, do you pasteurize it to stop the process?

I also actually thought about doing some with finished beer. Maybe some malt vinegar made from IIPA or something. Sounds tasty to me!
Click to expand...

I have no idea! I just left the mother in the cupboard once I decanted off the vinegar. There's liquid in there, too, as it stirs up and you can't pour it all off. I'm going to make some white wine vinegar next, I think. I'm not going to pasteurize, as it only "goes" until it's done and then stops. If there aren't big hunks of slimy mother in it, I think it'd be fine. You could even "filter" it through some cheesecloth I would think. My vinegar is actually pretty clear just by decanting, though.
 
Yeah, I was kinda wondering about that. I have some yeast in the bottom of mine, which I'm worried will autolyze (if it hasn't already). In retrospect, I wonder if I should have filtered before adding the 'live' vinegar. I've thought about storing my mother in either water or just plain white vinegar, but I'm not sure what would be best. I don't want to have to keep adding more apple cider vinegar, as I'd like to have a "more pure" product at some point.

My vinegar (still in the jug) is pretty much the same color it always was, faint yellow. It was a starter for a kolsch that used german pilsner dme for the starter wort. It's probably not going to even be any good since its pretty low alcohol, but I'm hoping the mother will make me some really good vinegar in the future.
 
I was planning on moving my vinegar today from the jug its in to some mason jars for storage. After getting the mother and vinegar out, I tasted it and realized its really not ready yet (at least I don't think it is). It's sour for sure, but still tastes a bit too much like beer. I'm thinking this vinegar will not be very good, but it did yield a huge mother. It's about 6" diameter and a little over a 1/4" thick. For now, I just split it up and put it in two mason jars (covered with paper towels) to let it finish. Now that I have such a good looking mother, I'm scheming what else to do with it.

Yooper, btw, I found on the internet you can seal it in a mason jar with just a bit of the vinegar and store it in the fridge and it'll be fine.

Not sure how reputable it is but it was all I could find so I'm going with it. Found that here:
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Red-Wine-Vinegar/74/1
 
just fired up my first batch of vinegar (pineapple). read about it in some latin american recipes and found a recipe as follows:

trimmings from 1 pineapple
1.25 quarts water
~ 3/4 cup brown sugar (or piloncillo)

dissolve sugar in water, add pineapple trimmings and let her rip! no hurry on this one, i've heard the resulting vinegar can be fantastic.
 
I have a small batch of cider that is about 13 months old that got over-oaked and is not really drinkable. Drinking it was close to chewing on oak chips. After a year in the bottle, the oak has mellowed quite a bit but it is still too strong in my opinion. I have been thinking of putting a 1 gallon batch of cider together to use for vinegar and remembered that oaked batch.

I threw a six pack of them in a small crock along with a bottle of Bragg's this past Saturday. I am hoping that it turns out well.
 
here's a picture of the pineapple vinegar, i mixed it up 8 days ago.. well, it's not vinegar yet, but the alcohol making portion of the process seems to be plugging right along, i'm surprised how much co2 is being generated. i read that it smells like hell when going, but i haven't found the smell bad at all, i kinda like it.

IMG_1959.JPG


here's the recipe if anyone is interested in doing it (EDIT: just realized i already posted it a few posts ago, oh well):

trimmings & core of one pineapple (organic is preferred)
~1.5 quarts water
3/4 cup brown sugar (piloncillo is the traditional way, but i didn't have any)

just cover it up to keep out the fruit flies and let it rip. i hear it takes about 3-4 weeks, but i will probably go until i get a nice mother forming on top. i plan to strain out the fruit in another few days and just let it go from there.
 
android said:
here's a picture of the pineapple vinegar, i mixed it up 8 days ago.. well, it's not vinegar yet, but the alcohol making portion of the process seems to be plugging right along, i'm surprised how much co2 is being generated. i read that it smells like hell when going, but i haven't found the smell bad at all, i kinda like it.

here's the recipe if anyone is interested in doing it (EDIT: just realized i already posted it a few posts ago, oh well):

trimmings & core of one pineapple (organic is preferred)
~1.5 quarts water
3/4 cup brown sugar (piloncillo is the traditional way, but i didn't have any)

just cover it up to keep out the fruit flies and let it rip. i hear it takes about 3-4 weeks, but i will probably go until i get a nice mother forming on top. i plan to strain out the fruit in another few days and just let it go from there.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try this next time we get a pineapple. It sounds great. I had pineapple salsa in Maui years ago that I loved. Vinegar sounds even better. Does much flavor from the brown sugar come through in the end?
 
lschiavo said:
Does much flavor from the brown sugar come through in the end?
Click to expand...

i'm not really sure as i haven't tasted it yet, i assume it is similar to brewing in that it does contribute some flavor (but mostly microorganism fuel), but most of the stuff i've read just describe the final product as a mild vinegar taste with definite pineapple notes.

but i have to take what i've read with a grain of salt. people are all over the map with how they make it. a lot of people seem to think it's done after a week or so, but obviously that wouldn't cut it. and some people just steep pineapples in water and white or cider vinegar and call it good, but that seems like cheating. i assume the way i did it (other than the piloncillo substitution) is the traditional way of making pineapple vinegar, and i'm excited to have the mother to make other kinds when this one is done.

i've also read about tepache, which is the intermediate alcoholic beverage from pineapple fermentation, that is a traditional mexican drink. might be fun to try that out sometime too.
 
android said:
i'm not really sure as i haven't tasted it yet, i assume it is similar to brewing in that it does contribute some flavor (but mostly microorganism fuel), but most of the stuff i've read just describe the final product as a mild vinegar taste with definite pineapple notes.

but i have to take what i've read with a grain of salt. people are all over the map with how they make it. a lot of people seem to think it's done after a week or so, but obviously that wouldn't cut it. and some people just steep pineapples in water and white or cider vinegar and call it good, but that seems like cheating. i assume the way i did it (other than the piloncillo substitution) is the traditional way of making pineapple vinegar, and i'm excited to have the mother to make other kinds when this one is done.

i've also read about tepache, which is the intermediate alcoholic beverage from pineapple fermentation, that is a traditional mexican drink. might be fun to try that out sometime too.
Click to expand...

How did yours turn out? I have a batch brewing now. It's been about a week with the fruit in. It didn't take long to start up on its own. How long did you leave the fruit in and when was it "done"?
 
lschiavo said:
I just read through that. Interesting... I guess this is just Tepache gone sour. I hope mine turns out as vinegar. Next time maybe I'll try the drink.
Click to expand...

Did that wine you set up with the mother ever "start" turning to vinegar?

We finished the malt vinegar and cider vinegar we made, but I think I accidently threw away most of the mother so I need to start over. I'm going to make a wine wine vinegar and red wine vinegar for sure, once I get a new mother started.
 
Yooper said:
Did that wine you set up with the mother ever "start" turning to vinegar?

We finished the malt vinegar and cider vinegar we made, but I think I accidently threw away most of the mother so I need to start over. I'm going to make a wine wine vinegar and red wine vinegar for sure, once I get a new mother started.
Click to expand...

I dumped the mother from a bottle of Bragg's into that wine. It still is not vinegar. I don't know how I screwed that up. Was it too high alcohol for the mother? I did not dilute.

I didn't know you were making more vinegars. Your first attempt at the hopped malt vinegar was very good. I will require a sample of the others now!
 
lschiavo said:
I dumped the mother from a bottle of Bragg's into that wine. It still is not vinegar. I don't know how I screwed that up. Was it too high alcohol for the mother? I did not dilute.

I didn't know you were making more vinegars. Your first attempt at the hopped malt vinegar was very good. I will require a sample of the others now!
Click to expand...

You're the only person I know who comes to my house for shots of vinegar! Most of them come for the beer or wine.

I made a small mistake (well, a large mistake) by leaving the mother without much vinegar in it in a jar on the counter to add to some red wine. Bob threw my "slime" away! I'm like, "Um, you have frozen fish guts in the freezer, worms in the fridge, deer tallow in the basement and you threw away MY slime?!?!" That conversation went downhill from there.

So I need to make another run at the malt vinegar next time I buy some Bragg's.
 
Yooper said:
You're the only person I know who comes to my house for shots of vinegar! Most of them come for the beer or wine.

I made a small mistake (well, a large mistake) by leaving the mother without much vinegar in it in a jar on the counter to add to some red wine. Bob threw my "slime" away! I'm like, "Um, you have frozen fish guts in the freezer, worms in the fridge, deer tallow in the basement and you threw away MY slime?!?!" That conversation went downhill from there.

So I need to make another run at the malt vinegar next time I buy some Bragg's.
Click to expand...

I'm weird, I like my shots of vinegar.

Bob should know better than to throw out a jar of slime. Especially with you in the house. Plus, wasn't at least part of his job studying slime? You would think he would have more repect for it:D
 
lschiavo said:
How did yours turn out? I have a batch brewing now. It's been about a week with the fruit in. It didn't take long to start up on its own. How long did you leave the fruit in and when was it "done"?
Click to expand...

sorry, missed this.

mine is still going actually. i took the fruit out after about 10 days, maybe a few more than that. i have the exact timeline at home. i started it on october 15th i think and it still seems to be turning into vinegar. i need to taste it to find out, but i think i'll give it another few weeks just to be sure, it definitely smells like vinegar.

it's gone through some interesting steps. after i took out the fruit and ran it through a coarse strainer, it developed a fuzzy pellicle, looked a lot like a brett fermentation and smelled like it too. then, after a few days, the pellicle gave way to the beginnings of the 'mother'. the mother has grown a little, but isn't all that big, i need to poke it with a spoon or something to see how thick it is... i'm excited to taste it, i'll report back when i do.
 
I just dumped a batch of red wine vinegar that I had started over a month ago. I used some Merlot from Aldi @ <$4.00 a bottle and put in a chunk of the mother from my cider vinegar. As of last night there hadn't been any kind of activity on it. From what I have read, the acetobacter likes an alcohol content around 5-7% and much above that can kill it. In addition, wines with sulfites added can be detrimental to the bacteria. Most sources I have seen say to dilute the wine with water to that range. I plan on picking up a bottle of wine w/o sulfites and giving it another go this weekend.
 

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