Post by mjc on Sept 17, 2010 13:14:36 GMT -5
The whole process depends on acetobacter and air. Acetobacter are aerobic bacteria, so no airlocks are used...cloth (cheese cloth) is used to keep out insects, but otherwise, the process needs to be exposed to air. The other requirement is alcohol...so you can't go directly from juice to vinegar. It needs the yeast to convert the sugar to alcohol first.
Wooden barrels, of about five gallon capacity, are the BEST way to make vinegar (you'd need one for each type) but glass, stainless steel and even plastic (yuk...but in a pinch an old pickle bucket will definitely work) are all usable. With the barrel, you can fill it, get the vinegar 'working' and then, after it becomes vinegar, drain some out and then add more of what you started with (wine, cider, strained wort...etc). I've never worked with a barrel that way, though (never had a barrel to use) but I did know some old Italian gentlemen that did. I've made gallon batches in gallon jugs (the glass 'apple juice' jugs).
As to white vinegar...it can be made from any grain. It is first fermented...so basically nothing of the grain itself makes it to the final product. The resulting alcohol is then turned into vinegar and finally distilled. There is little chance of GMO material making it through that process...but it still 'supports' GMOs (by planting/growing them in the first place), if that is the grain used to begin with. But most white vinegar is made from malt vinegar (usually as waste material from commercial beer making...so it is usually barley, not corn as the 'base' grain)...spent wort is usually much cheaper than fresh grain. (as another side note...you can use spent wort from homemade beer, in a 'second' fermentation to make vinegar, too...usually this will require added sugar).
The only other warning is that most homemade vinegars are not going to be the proper strength for pickling. Most pickle recipes require 5% vinegar. Homemade vinegars can range from about 3% to over 10%. There are acid testing kits that you can pick up a wine/beer supply stores that you should be able to use to test the acidity and act accordingly, but it is extra work/expense.
Wine and cider vinegars are easy to make...start with some wine (preferably a homemade one that skips the final Campden tablets) and either let it sit in a cloth covered container until it 'goes bad' (for wine that is...it will be vinegar at that point) or induce it to turn by adding some organic wine vinegar to it or a mother from another batch. You can use white, red a combination or any other fruit wine, although the final vinegar may not be 'fruity'. For fruity vinegars, it is best to infuse a finished vinegar with the flavor of fresh fruit (raspberry). You can even use partial bottles of leftover wine, mixed together...but no sulf*tes wines are best. If you do have wines with sulf*tes, then it is absolutely necessary to use a starter culture (mother). One can be easily made from 100% juice (organic is best), a little sugar and a little yeast...to make a small batch of wine. Instead of using a lock on it, put it in a mason jar and let it turn on its own, after a few weeks, you'll see the mother growing. Then dump it into the commercial wine that you've been saving up.
For cider vinegar, start with sweet cider add some sugar and 'mother' (the stringy, hazy sediment on the bottom of bottles of organic cider vinegar). Or hard cider and mother (takes less time)/
That's the basics...
www.naturemoms.com/homemade-vinegar.html
Wooden barrels, of about five gallon capacity, are the BEST way to make vinegar (you'd need one for each type) but glass, stainless steel and even plastic (yuk...but in a pinch an old pickle bucket will definitely work) are all usable. With the barrel, you can fill it, get the vinegar 'working' and then, after it becomes vinegar, drain some out and then add more of what you started with (wine, cider, strained wort...etc). I've never worked with a barrel that way, though (never had a barrel to use) but I did know some old Italian gentlemen that did. I've made gallon batches in gallon jugs (the glass 'apple juice' jugs).
As to white vinegar...it can be made from any grain. It is first fermented...so basically nothing of the grain itself makes it to the final product. The resulting alcohol is then turned into vinegar and finally distilled. There is little chance of GMO material making it through that process...but it still 'supports' GMOs (by planting/growing them in the first place), if that is the grain used to begin with. But most white vinegar is made from malt vinegar (usually as waste material from commercial beer making...so it is usually barley, not corn as the 'base' grain)...spent wort is usually much cheaper than fresh grain. (as another side note...you can use spent wort from homemade beer, in a 'second' fermentation to make vinegar, too...usually this will require added sugar).
The only other warning is that most homemade vinegars are not going to be the proper strength for pickling. Most pickle recipes require 5% vinegar. Homemade vinegars can range from about 3% to over 10%. There are acid testing kits that you can pick up a wine/beer supply stores that you should be able to use to test the acidity and act accordingly, but it is extra work/expense.
Wine and cider vinegars are easy to make...start with some wine (preferably a homemade one that skips the final Campden tablets) and either let it sit in a cloth covered container until it 'goes bad' (for wine that is...it will be vinegar at that point) or induce it to turn by adding some organic wine vinegar to it or a mother from another batch. You can use white, red a combination or any other fruit wine, although the final vinegar may not be 'fruity'. For fruity vinegars, it is best to infuse a finished vinegar with the flavor of fresh fruit (raspberry). You can even use partial bottles of leftover wine, mixed together...but no sulf*tes wines are best. If you do have wines with sulf*tes, then it is absolutely necessary to use a starter culture (mother). One can be easily made from 100% juice (organic is best), a little sugar and a little yeast...to make a small batch of wine. Instead of using a lock on it, put it in a mason jar and let it turn on its own, after a few weeks, you'll see the mother growing. Then dump it into the commercial wine that you've been saving up.
For cider vinegar, start with sweet cider add some sugar and 'mother' (the stringy, hazy sediment on the bottom of bottles of organic cider vinegar). Or hard cider and mother (takes less time)/
That's the basics...
www.naturemoms.com/homemade-vinegar.html
