I just started fermenting veg, and have been happy with the results so far. I have been baking sourdough bread for a few years now, and it’s been such a great experience. Now, it’s time to try fruit vinegar, and it is almost uncharted it seems. So many wildly conflicting approaches. Add sugar, use dried fruit, add yeast, just add fruit and water, on and on it goes. Makes me think that it might be almost foolproof – but it sure is dicey getting started.
I would like to know other folks experiences with making vinegar. I’m starting out with this approach and some of my dried apricots: https://youtu.be/V9nfVu9zGxk
Right now my jar (started 9-19) is a bubbling jar of primordial soup. I remove any mold specks and stir it daily. It’s not something one would want to look at, that’s for sure. LOL
I had a extra bottle of currant wine that I didn’t have container for its second fermentation, so I just put it in an empty bottle and poured some organic apple vinegar in with the mother. It smells like vinegar now but I havent had the courage to use/consume it as food seasoning. I add it to the water when I water the plants.
I am also making my regular grapes wine and had a gallon or so liquid left from first fermentation. I just let it exposed in air. I wanted it to turn into Sherry. I use a lot of extra dry Sherry for cooking. I hope it will develop some kund of flor on the surface. If not it may turn into some kind of vinegar
I made really delish red wine vinegar. But I had to buy a 4 »mother » to start the fermentation process. Never made fruit vinegar, but I do like raspberry vinegar!
Years ago when I was brewing beer, I got tied up in a lot of things and totally forgot I had two 5 gallon buckets of boiled wort (it was hopped during boiling, but no finishing hops & ya, I know how could I ever forget about 10 gallons of beer!) Anyway, I was cleaning the porch probably a year later and came across the two buckets. I removed the lid and was all but knocked over by the acidic acid, but boy it was the best malt vinegar ever. One could see the mother as I filled cleaned 1 qt beer bottles with the the stuff. I used a lot myself and gave a lot to friends and family, who all raved about how good (and strong) it was. I didn’t add anything but since I would just set the lid on the 5 gal bucket so it was not a perfect air seal.
I’ve had muscadine grape wine that turned to vinegar when I didn’t get it bottled soon enough. I forgot about it in the carboy and when I was going to pour it out I smelled it. It had a great vinegar smell and when I tasted it the taste was better than any you could buy at the store.
It doesn’t quite count as vinegar (¿would that make this off-topic?), but I used to brew Kombucha, then second ferment with fruit on occasion (usually it was juice, so actual fruit was a rare treat). Best substitute for soft drinks I’ve ever had, I cut out soda and replaced it with the brew on the daily. The best one I made was flavored with Mammee Apple and a touch of Soursop (a little goes a long way) plus juice, and it was exquisite! I tried Mabolo fruit, but the pulp reacted like mentos, I couldn’t open the bottle without a mess bubbling out explosively.
I just got back into brewing a couple of weeks ago with the true Ginger Beer Plant (though I don’t use ginger) but the going is slower than Kombucha. The grains don’t multiply quite as fast. But it’s a better probiotic, and it’s easier to isolate it from environmental dangers like mold or roach spray (Lactobacillus is anaerobic, so I just pop a lid on the jar).
I make raspberry vinegar. I use frozen raspberries otherwise it gets wormy. 500 g crashed berries, 1 l of water, 150g of sugar in a wide jar, covered with fabric, no airlock. Keep it at room temperature for about a month, then strain the liquid through cheese cloth and keep in the same wide jar for another month covered with fabric, then strain well through coffee filter into the bottles.
