North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

How long depends on the mother you use; I you just add ‘mother-included’ vinegar from a health/natural food store, it won’t be as fast or reliable as buying some mother directly.  It may be good if you keep that ‘live’ vinegar for months until the mother forms a layer, which will sink to the bottom of the vinegar bottle.  Strain off the vinegar, and use that.  Once you have good mother-of-vinegar, you can transfer it from batch to batch.   Although you’ll get usable vinegar in less time, it takes 10 weeks before you have excellent quality.  More time is better.  Natural food store apple cider vinegar is pretty good – you may not notice a big difference.  The red and white wine vinegars you can easily make at home will be better than any you can buy, and an 87 point 5-7 dollar bottle of wine will make a great vinegar.  Or splurge and get a 90-pointer, for about ten bucks.  Still cheap, and the vinegar quality will be amazing.  Although you can get down to commercial pH levels, homemade vinegar from good wine is drinkable, which is good; and will transform your salad dressings.   

Many beer and wine suppliers sell mother.

 

 

~ Stephen

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Olenio
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 5:31 PM
To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] homemade apple cider vinegar

 

Hello,

 

All you need is mother-of-vinegar to convert the alcohol in the hard cider to acid.

 

Slowly pour off the clear liquid from the dregs and settlings (dead yeast cells).  Toss out the dregs on your compost pile.

 

Go to your local organic store and buy a bottle of organic vinegar that still has mother-of-vinegar in it.  Shake the bottle of organic vinegar and add it to the hard cider.  The mother of vinegar will become active and convert the alcohol in the hard cider to acid.  Stir it daily for a period of time.

 

Most any organic store sells “mother”;

http://www.herbalremedies.com/applecider.html

 

It is that simple.

 

You can filter it or use it as it is.  I am not sure how many days it takes for the acidification process to complete.

 

Later,

Tom

 

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From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Michele Stanton
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 7:39 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] homemade apple cider vinegar

 

Hi all,

Do any of you make your own apple cider vinegar?

I am making some by default and could use the benefit of your experience.

I bought 1/2 gal of some locally made apple cider (non-alcoholic) a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.  It had been minimally processed, and when I remembered about it a week ago, the plastic jug was bulging, and lo and behold, it was fermenting in the frig.  Smelled yeasty, sort of like beer.  I let the gasses escape, put the lid loosely on, and put it back in the frig until I could figure out how to make vinegar of it.  This morning after I'd downloaded vinegar-making instructions, I took it back out of the frig, and it now smells much more like wine....the yeasty odor is gone.

 

I didn't measure sugar content at the beginning, have no wine-making equipment handy, stored it in the frig, not at the recommended temperatures, didn't add yeast, etc., etc.---can I still make vinegar of it?  It was great apple cider, I hate to just throw it out.

Is the process fairly forgiving of less-than-ideal conditions?  Any suggestions?  I have canning equipment, etc., if needed.

 

Thanks,

Michele

SW Ohio

 

PS I'm not sure which apples were in the cider, the orchard from which it came grows more than 20 cultivars.