walkerland (64)
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6 years ago
Used for flavouring & preserving food as well as heath tonics, skin and hair care, good quality unpasteurized vinegars are incredibly versatile. So often the best products for health, skincare and culinary uses can be found right in the pantry. We've got this pure, unadulterated goodness right at our fingertips and it's quite remarkable.
I've experimented with making a wide range of vinegars and putting them to use in our culinary, health and wellness regimes. We have been delighted with the results.
Unfortunately a lot of the vinegar that you find at the grocery store is mass produced. When they are heated or pasteurized they no longer contain all of the lovely nutrients and health benefits of those that are hand crafted. There are of course exceptions to this and you can find carefully crafted artisan varieties that have been made with care and attention, but why not try your hand at making your own?
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, prescribed apple cider vinegar mixed with honey for a variety of ills, including coughs and colds (400BC)
Hint: If you've got a bit of wine left over from wine making or from a bottle you've opened - with just a few minutes of work you can start it on it's way to becoming a lovely vinegar.
Vinegar can be made from just about any alcoholic liquid under 18%. There's wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, apple cider vinegar, malt vinegar, beer vinegar, rice wine vinegar, vinegars infused with fruit and herbs and so many others that can be made at home by you with ease. Malt vinegar and balsamic (not really vinegar) are more advanced projects that I haven't really explored.
To make vinegar, you are essentially fermenting alcohol while exposing it to oxygen. The alcohol ferments into acetaldehyde, which then converts into acetic acid. A gel like bacterial culture called the mother grows on the surface and creates the vinegar.
The beauty of making your own vinegar is that you can start from scratch with apples, fruit or other ingredients, giving you full control of the quality of ingredients or you can leap ahead and start with store bought apple cider or wine or other ready made alcohol.
The process of converting alcohol to vinegar can take several months. Once you have a mother you can use it in subsequent batches to accelerate the vinegar making process.
If you are a home brewer, never store your vinegar concoctions in the same room as your wine and beer ferments. The bacteria that creates vinegar can be quite disastrous if it gets into things you don't want to turn into vinegar.
Beer Vinegar
Take a beer that you like (the best are usually dark/strong ales) pour it into a sterilized glass jar and cover with cheesecloth. Secure with rubber band. Store in a dark cupboard away from other ferments like wine for at least two months. Test it on occasion and when it's vinegary to your liking, it's done. You can also add some mother from apple cider vinegar to accelerate the process.
This is a light beer with mother added that we are trying out.
Raw apple cider vinegar is a popular way to make herbal tonics and tinctures and even alcoholic beverages using vinegar concoctions called shrubs. Be careful when taking vinegar directly because it can harm the enamel on your teeth. Use a straw or dilute it heavily.
It contains more than fifty nutrients including iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium & copper. In addition, it contains vitamin C, A, B1, B2, B6 and E. Acetic acid present in the apple cider vinegar causes release of energy from fats and carbohydrates noted which can aide in maintaining a healthy body weight. It raises our the PH level and increases the alkalinity. It's also regarded as an antiviral, antiseptic, antibacterial and anti-fungal product. source
The Amish have a leg cramp & acid reflux remedy from the 1800's that consists of Apple cider Vinegar, ginger and garlic.
I highly recommend taking a bit of time to learn how to make your own apple cider vinegar, wine vinegar, herbal tonics and more! You don't need any special equipment to get started and the rewards are plentiful. Its a great way to save money while stocking up your pantry with delicious concoctions!
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Recipe
How To Make Raspberry Vinegar
Rose Infused Vinegar
Further Reading
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Vinegar.html
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FAQs
A sugar concentration in the range of 10 to 18 percent is considered ideal for making vinegar stock. This is because concentrations of alcohol at 9 to 12 percent are considered optimal for vinegar production. Acetobacter aceti is the bacteria used to create vinegar from alcohol.
Can I use vinegar mother to make more vinegar? ›
Eventually, once the mother has grown larger, more mothers will form on top of the old one. These can be used to make more vinegar in pots or barrels or give to friends. The whole process can take anything from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the time of year and where you keep your pot or barrel.
How to make distilled vinegar at home? ›
Pour in enough raw vinegar in one pail to fill 1/4th of one of the pails. Continue filling the same pail with water until the dilute raw vinegar covers the packing. Let it sit for an hour and then pour the dilute raw vinegar in the other pail and allow it to sit for an hour.
Can honey become vinegar? ›
Honey Vinegar is produced from Honey Wine that has been diluted with spring water, bringing it to 9° of alcohol. The mixture is placed in containers with fermenting bacteria that transform the alcohol into acetic acid. Theoretically, the resulting vinegar is alcohol-free although traces can sometimes be found.
What happens when you put powdered sugar in vinegar? ›
Vinegar + icing sugar = physical change (icing sugar does not dissolve completely - like granulated sugar.) Vinegar + cornstarch = physical change (the cornstarch forms a cloudy solution - it does not dissolve or react with the vinegar)
Why does my homemade vinegar smell like yeast? ›
After a successful fermentation start, yeasty smell and off flavor is caused by the active yeast strain. Unfortunately, even some cultivated yeast strains have this issue.
What is the mother of the vinegar? ›
Mother of vinegar is a biofilm composed of a form of cellulose, yeast, and bacteria that sometimes develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids during the process that turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air and acetic acid bacteria (AAB).
Can vinegar go bad? ›
The only real side effect from leaving vinegar to its own devices is that its acidity will gradually decrease over time, making it less potent. This is why a "best by" date can be found on the bottle, but it's still perfectly fine long past that — it isn't an "expiration date," by any means. Vinegar does not expire.
What is the best vinegar mix? ›
The most common vinegar cleaning solution contains one cup of vinegar mixed with one cup of warm water. Warm water helps to dissolve grease and hard water spots more quickly. People who are filling a spray bottle that they will use over time may want to mix the vinegar with distilled water, not tap water.
Can you make vinegar from potato peels? ›
The potato peel is subjected to liquefaction, cellulose hydrolysis, saccharification and alcohol fermentation, and then the wine is fermented for 15 hours in a liquid-state self-suction fermentation tank to obtain the potato peel healthcare vinegar with acidity of 4.5%, wherein the potassium ion content of the vinegar ...
Let sit in a dark place, stirring and tasting occasionally (like every few days), until it tastes fully vinegar-y (this could take from several weeks to several months). Along the way it might smell sort of weird, skunky, or maybe like nail polish remover as ours did for days on end.
How to make vinegar at home easy? ›
To make your own vinegar, start by pouring equal parts wine and water into a sterilized jar. Alternatively, you can use hard cider or beer instead of wine. Next, add vinegar starter to the jar, and seal the jar with a cheesecloth or paper towel and a rubber band.
How do you make a vinegar starter from scratch? ›
What I did was to add some live, unpasteurized organic apple cider vinegar to a gallon of my home made wine. I added the cloudy “mother” in the last couple of inches of the vinegar bottle to a gallon jug of wine, and left it at room temperature for a month. It made a gallon of very nice vinegar.
Can you make vinegar without a mother? ›
However, it is also possible to make vinegar without a mother of vinegar (or unpasteurized vinegar) because the acetic acid bacteria, responsible for turning alcohol into vinegar, are present in the air.
How do you make cleaning vinegar from scratch? ›
DIY Vinegar Cleaner Recipe
In a 16-ounce glass spray bottle combine 8 ounces of distilled white vinegar and 8 ounces of water.
Is it cheaper to make your own vinegar? ›
Making your own apple cider vinegar at home has huge cost-savings benefits, especially if you're using scraps, homegrown, or otherwise low-cost apples. Even if you buy them just for this project, a few apples can create a lot of vinegar!
