I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.

Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they have any
stories to share.

Lobster Man wrote:
> I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>
> Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they have any
> stories to share.
My mom has- are you starting with a "mother"?

Lobster Man wrote:
> I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>
> Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they have any
> stories to share.


I don't know if this counts as a story. It isn't terribly amusing. I
got the information on making vinegar from The Vegetarian Epicure by
Anna Thomas. You start with a bottle of apple cider vinegar from the
health food store, the kind with live mother of vinegar looking thick on
the bottom of the bottle. You add it to wine that you didn't finish on
the night you opened it or have leftover for any other reason. That's
pretty much it.


I learned that if you add a few cloves of garlic, the garlic gets eaten
out of the vinegar before it does much to flavor the vinegar. My
roommates at that time loved vinegar flavored garlic.


I learned that you have to start with good tasting wine. I tried making
vinegar with Manischevitz and have a handwritten note in the cookbook
explaining that it doesn't even make good vinegar.


--Lia

Lobster Man wrote

> I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>
> Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they have any
> stories to share.

IF you can get info on the SO2 contents of wines, choose the ones with
the lower content: SO2 is naturally present in wine but much miore get
added to help preserve it, and too much SO2 will impair your acetic
fermentation as well. The best would be a wine without added SO2.
Usually no wine carries that information on the label, but there are
many wine magazines who do theyr analysis and report the SO2 contents
of every bottle they taste, rate or simply list in each issue: low SO2
helps a lot.
--
Vilco
Think pink, drink rose'

merryb wrote:
> Lobster Man wrote:
>
>>I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>>
>>Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they have any
>>stories to share.
>
> My mom has- are you starting with a "mother"?
>

I have some store-bought vinegar that is supposed to still have the
mother in it. I was going to start with that.

Several people in this thread have mentioned using wine to start. I am
allergic to the sulfites naturally present in wine, so I was wanting to
do a fruit-based vinegar. Cherry, or pear, or maybe blueberry. Apple
cider vinegar is easy enough to buy.

Has anyone done vinegar from scratch, starting with a non-fermented
product? It'd be a two-step process--fermenting the sugars into alcohol,
then fermenting the alcohol into vinegar.

I've done some home brewing, so I'm fairly comfortable with this, but
still was curious if anyone else had tried it.

Thanks to those that have already responded, and thanks in advance to
those that might still respond.

Lobster Man > wrote:

> I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.

There is a vinegar-making FAQ at
<http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/rural-skills/food/recipes/Vinegar-Making.FAQ>.

Victor

"Victor Sack" > wrote in message
. ..
> Lobster Man > wrote:
>
>> I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>
> There is a vinegar-making FAQ at
> <http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/rural-skills/food/recipes/Vinegar-Making.FAQ>.
>
Helpful info, thanks.

Lobster Man wrote:
>
> I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>
> Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they
> have any stories to share.

Here's what it says in _Fish_Cookery_ by Spencer and Cobb
(Little, Brown, and Company, 1927), pages 346-348:

"According to the amount of fruit, choose earthen
or glass vessel to contain it with the added water.
Wide-mouth glass jars, half gallons, or larger
crocks are the best. Use no metal containers.
Casks or small barrels are used by those going
into it on a large scale, but the amateur had
better try her hand first with the smaller amount.
Besides, unless one has a quantity of spoiled cider
or wine, the average person has only a small amount
of fruit fermenting at a time. When a jar of
fruit is opened and found 'working,' or little
odds and ends of stewed fruit accumulate, place
them in a half gallon or quart jar and add as much
water as fruit. Tie a cloth over the mouth and
put in warm place. In summer it works well in a
sunny place, in winter somewhere near the stove,
or where a temperature of around 70F may be
obtained. If kept in a cellar at around 50F
it is very slow in fermenting. Then add half
a yeast cake; placed on a bit of toast and
removed later it will soon start the fluid
working. Once it has begun to work it commences
to shoot up little bubbles and 'sings' merrily."

[. . .]

"The first stage of development produces alcohol
and if this is poured off into bottles after
'singing' has ceased the result will be wine.
After standing awhile longer, the acetic acid
stage is developed and the alcohol changes
into vinegar. Then the 'mother,' a gelatinous
cake, forms and the vinegar may be carefully
strained off and bottled or put in jars and
corked tight."

"The richer the fruit in sugar, the stronger
the vinegar. Allowing it to stand for two or
three months before using improves the bouquet.
Vinegar of this sort, the source of which is
known, may be used instead of lemon juice in
mayonnaise making and in salads and sauces of
all kinds."

"To make vinegar quickly it must be placed
in a warm place to ferment and the larger the
surface exposed to the air, the quicker it
will reach the acetic acid stage. If the
container is placed in a warm closet where
there is some real vinegar, in an open
container, it will become quickly impregnated
from the latter and will rapidly go through
the stage of alcohol and arrive at the
acetic acid or vinegar stage. The bacteria
from the real vinegar will attack the new
at the alcohol stage at once and the
development of 'mother' will occur very
quickly. Or to place some of the 'mother'
in the liquid at the alcoholic fermentation
stage induces the acetous fermentation by
the alcohol becoming oxidized, and acetic
acid or vinegar is the result of that
process."

"Vinegar may be made from the parings of
apples or other fruit, the easier way being
to cover them with cold water, boil down
as if for jelly, then let it drip through
a coarse strainer. To each gallon of juice
add a cup of sugar or syrup, put it in a
crock in a warm place and fermentation will
take place as described."

"When made of jam, jelly, or canned fruit
which has slightly 'spoiled' it will
require the addition of no sugar and the
amount of water should be slightly more
than the amount of fruit for a strong
vinegar."

"It makes no difference from what kind of
fruit vinegar is made, whether it be from
bright red berries or pale-colored fruit,
for as it ages the bright color fades or
the light color deepens, and it all takes
on the light-brown color of vinegar."

* * *

Say thank you to this woman:
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cg...&CISOPTR=45239

Mark Thorson wrote:
> Lobster Man wrote:
>
>>I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>>
>>Just wondering if anyone here has tried this and if they
>>have any stories to share.
>

Thanks for this information.

>
> Here's what it says in _Fish_Cookery_ by Spencer and Cobb
> (Little, Brown, and Company, 1927), pages 346-348:
>
> "According to the amount of fruit, choose earthen
> or glass vessel to contain it with the added water.
> Wide-mouth glass jars, half gallons, or larger
> crocks are the best. Use no metal containers.
> Casks or small barrels are used by those going
> into it on a large scale, but the amateur had
> better try her hand first with the smaller amount.
> Besides, unless one has a quantity of spoiled cider
> or wine, the average person has only a small amount
> of fruit fermenting at a time. When a jar of
> fruit is opened and found 'working,' or little
> odds and ends of stewed fruit accumulate, place
> them in a half gallon or quart jar and add as much
> water as fruit. Tie a cloth over the mouth and
> put in warm place. In summer it works well in a

This is still in the fermentation stage right? When brewing beer, I use
a special airlock that allows the CO2 out, but doesn't let in any stray
yeast or bacteria that will skunk the beer. Simply tying a cloth over
the mouth of the jar seems inadequate.

> reminder of response deleted for brevity...

Lobster Man wrote:
>
> Thanks for this information.

Here's some mo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_eels

Bon appetit!

On Jan 27, 11:30 pm, "merryb" > wrote:
> Lobster Man wrote:
> > I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.

Don't you love it when people point you to a link
(as if your too ignorant to google up, "making your own vinegar")
pfft.. I personally think you are equal to the task of searching up
some good recipes
but whats the point in posting just so someone can pass the buck

Just consider the dumbasses dumbasses
people with issues

oh well

say, I haven't tried this, but I heard you can put one drop of vinegar
into a bottle of apple cider and it will turn the whole bottle of
cider into vinegar.

99

Lobster Man wrote:
>
> Thanks for this information.

Here's a picture of vinegar eels:

http://www.vinegarman.com/zoo_vinegar_eel.shtml

Apparently, they are a GOOD THING when making
vinegar, as long as you filter them out of
the final product.

Ninety Nine wrote:
> On Jan 27, 11:30 pm, "merryb" > wrote:
>
>>Lobster Man wrote:
>>
>>>I'm thinking about trying my hand at making my own vinegar.
>
>
> Don't you love it when people point you to a link
> (as if your too ignorant to google up, "making your own vinegar")
> pfft.. I personally think you are equal to the task of searching up
> some good recipes
> but whats the point in posting just so someone can pass the buck
>

Agreed.

I was looking for antedotal experiences than recipes.

>
> say, I haven't tried this, but I heard you can put one drop of vinegar
> into a bottle of apple cider and it will turn the whole bottle of
> cider into vinegar.

I bet this would work, but only if the drop of vinegar was unpasterized
and still had the acetobacter culture (the "mother") in it.

>
> 99
>