Question about acetic acid production during fermentation

[LiquidSandwhich]

Hello! I've been checking out the forums for a few months now and doing some experiments with mead.

I've been sort of winging things so far and I haven't been taking gravity readings or anything. About a month ago I put 1lb of fireweed honey into a carboy and filled it with water, shook the heck out of it. Then I added some 71b after letting it rehydrate for a few minutes. A few days later I decide I wanted to add strawberries and blueberries, so I picked up a wide mouth fermenter and carefully poured the must from the carboy into the wide mouth. Two weeks or so later I added the fruit. I haven't been doing any kind of TOSNA regiment or anything, just letting it do it's thing.

I got kinda panic-y about the fruit so I took it out after 3 days. It's been sitting in the carboy since. I've been sampling here and there since it's been in the carboy and it's been gaining a vinegar taste as time goes on. I know acetic acid is usually the cause. I'm wondering if during that initial transfer from carboy to wide mouth, I over oxygenated the must.

I'll take any advice on what to do right next time. I know getting OG and FG readings will help dial things in, and I've learned disturbing the must is a big no-no. I've slowly been picking up the proper equipment and what not. My girlfriend is a bigger wine drinker than I am, she says it reminds her of when she would find a box of wine she had forgotten about haha. I wondering if there is anyway to save this?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi LiquidSandwhich, and welcome. I think you can make vinegar when two conditions are met. The first is that you introduce enough oxygen into the mead or wine and the second is that aceto-bacteria are introduced to that aerated wine. The bacteria most often come from fruit flies but those bacteria can be on the fruit and if you don't kill them by dosing any fruit you add with K-meta (SO2) then your wine or mead might be a haven for them.