On 9 Jan, 21:49, "Kathi Jones" > wrote:
> "Derric" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
>
>
> >> 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.
>
> > The acetobacter needs oxygen to make vinegar. You don't say, but if
> > you didn't leave the wine open to the air (cheesecloth), the acetobacter
> > wouldn't be able to get any O2 and wouldn't work. (That's probably the
> > main reason most wine doesn't end up vinegar!).
>
> yes, I did use cheese cloth...which is why I'm stumped......
>
>
>
> >> 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..
>
> > rec.crafts.brewing is about beer, rec.crafts.winemaking is for wine.
>
> right, thanks - couldn't remember - but I was close...;-)
>
> Kathi
>
>
>
> > Derric

It is possible to make wine vinegar by leaving your wine out in the
open to 'catch' the acetobacter but you can also 'catch' other things
that you don't really want. It's better to add some preservative free
vinegar about half and half if you really want to 'catch' your own,
but it's much better, as someone else said, to buy or beg a mother
from somewhere,

http://cellar-homebrew.com/store/cat...her-p-910.html



I have a mother on my malt vinegar at the moment, it grew very
quickly, I'm hoping it's okay and not something else, a friend of mine
gave me some of his mother but it was quite old. Some of it was
looking good so in it went. I took it out after a couple of days
because it's the acetobacter that you're after not the cellulose mass.
If the mother falls it can rot making off tastes in your vinegar I
read. I fed some organic, unpasteurized wine vinegar 50:50 wine and
vinegar, it tastes great now, it's ready for bottling already, I don't
want it any stronger.

Jim