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Posted to rec.food.preserving
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Making Wine Vinegar
"cbx" > wrote in message
...
> My 2 cents worth. Acetobacter is the critter that is responsible for
> changing the alcohol to vinegar, and when making wine this is the
> critter you want to avoid at all costs.
>
> Surest way to make good vinegar is to buy a culture (mother) from
> reputable vendor (homebrew supply stores carry it) or borrow a few
> ounces from someone who has a culture going. The "Mother" is the most
> disgusting looking thing you would ever see in your life, and it looks
> obscene to say the least. There are different strains of
> "acetobacter" that produce various flavors. I like Malt vinegar so
> purchase a malt vinegar mother and use stale beer instead of wine.
>
> You can make your own "mother" by putting single layer of very coarse
> cheesecloth or screening over a jug of wine, and set it out on the
> porch. Fruitflies, flies, other flying critters will come to try to
> get into the bottle, but will be stopped by the screen. However, the
> little "acetobacter" fall into the wine and start growing, as they
> naturally populate the outside of the fruitfly and flies, and other
> bugs.
>
> The problem with this method is that although it works all the time,
> you never know exactly which strainof the little bacterium or whatever
> you are starting, although most always it will turn out OK. For a
> particular flavor get a "mother" from a company specializing in
> vinegars.
>
> Commercial vinegar is made from Crude Oil, I would NEVER NEVER NEVER
> drink vinegar made in a refinery (distilled white vinegar and most
> commercial vinegars, flavored with laboratory chemicals).
>
> Maybe someone from England can jump in here with more explicit
> instructions, as they have some excellent Malt vinegars over there and
> I have never been able to even come close to those with my
> store-bought mothers. (a "Mother" would make the basis of a good
> science fiction movie, as if you have ever seen one they are the stuff
> mightmares are made of).
>
> On a related subject,, I used to make sherry the way they do in
> Europe, in an Estuffa (heated cabinet), and the yeast for this stuff
> makes a "mother" also, and it makes a hard, crusty "mother" that is
> just as obscene looking. I can't find the yeast anymore since Wine
> Art went out of business many years ago (sherry flor yeast). The
> homemade sherry was better than anything you could buy, could be made
> out of just about anything (I used oranges), but it took some time to
> enjoy.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, 06 Jan 2007 01:45:58 -0800, Reg > wrote:
>
>>Peter Watson wrote:
>>
>>> On 4/1/07 10:21 AM, in article
>>> ,
>>> "Goomba38" > wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>Thank you for your reply.
>>>>Here is the recipe: Aceto di vino, from Giulliano Bugialli's "Foods of
>>>>Naples and Campania"
>>>>
>>>>2 slices white bread, crusts removed
>>>>4 cups dry red wine
>>>>
>>>>Put the bread in a glass jar, then pour the wine over it. Place a piece
>>>>of cheesecloth over the top of the jar and set the jar aside in a
>>>>cabinet or on a countertop away from direct sunlight.
>>>>
>>>>Let the jar rest for about 25 days. in this period of time the bread
>>>>will turn very dark in color and become almost gelatinous. This is the
>>>>so called mother of the wine vinegar. Carefully drain and filter the
>>>>wine that has become vinegar into a bowl., then pour into a bottle. The
>>>>vinegar is now ready to be used.
>>>>
>>>>You can add more wine to the jar containing the mother of the vinegar.
>>>>This time the process of changing the wine into vinegar will be much
>>>>faster, about 1 week.
>>>
>>> I think that you will need to use sour dough bread if it is available
>>> near
>>> you, but thr recipe sounds great and I am going to try it.
>>
>>You don't need to use sourdough, or bread made with
>>any specific yeast. There's no live cultures left in
>>bread (as there is in, for example, yoghurt). It all
>>dies off during baking.
>
I bought a vinegar mother from a wine making shop, followed the directions
and tried to make vinegar out of my home brew wine....It never became
vinegar and I don't know why. There's a wine making newsgroup I used to
read, which is where I got the idea for trying it....rec.crafts.brewing? or
....something winemaking? can't remember what the group was called...anyway,
check them out - there are brewing people there that could be of some help..
Kathi
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