how to make vinegar

Hi ther I was woundering if any one knew how vinger was made from a plant. The plant is called a vinegar plant and growns in a jar of water and the water turns to vinegar is this true.

see ya

[thebighat]

I'm gratified to be able to answer promptly--I don't know. I always thought vinegar was wine that was soured somehow, maybe by yeast or bacterial action. There is a thing called a vinegar mother, which is a white filmy thing that floats, and apparently lives, in a jug of vinegar. It you add it to a bottle of wine, it will turn it to vinegar.

[davewarne]

Hi Brian,

Do a search on this forum using Making Vinegar and you will find a short thread on the subject from last December.

David

thanks the big hat

at least i have some sort of idea what to look for.

Thanks

Brian.nf

[mudbug]

A "vinegar plant" is acutally a yeast.

There is a detailed description of the process here and here.

Check out this link for vinegar making

You're probably wanting a "mother of vinegar".

Check out the following links for more info:

How To Make Vinegar

How To Make Vinegar II

Mother of Vinegar

Make Homemade Vinegar

Making Homemade Vinegar

Making Vinegar

[Athenaeus]

Hi Brian!

I am going to insist on this one because my grandmother was a wine producer and she was making vinegar every single year

The word vinegar comes from the latin world VINUM that as you know means wine
So VINEGAR comes strickly from wine, the rest is...

In order to have vinegar you must have wine with not preservatives because even when it turns to something that tastes like vinegar will be dangerous to health.

Organic wine makers know that even their wine turns out to fail the will going to have the best vinegar and as you propably know the price of the organic vinegar is triple the price of the organic wine...

Please do not make vinegar of yeast

[Olive Branch]

I've been making vinegar for a few years and here's how I do it. Get a small barrel, like about 2 gallons. Get some grape juice (my local winemaker presses me some with no sodium bisulfite (a preservative that will prevent acetic acid from forming). Put the juice and a "mother of vinegar" in the barrel. Wait about two months. I've tried cabernet, zinfandel, burgundy. All lovely. This year I pressed some unidentified grapes from my own arbor in mid-October. I'll let you know what happens!

You can skip the "mother" and inoculate your juice with wild yeast. Sometimes it is on the grape skins, or you can leave it on the back porch for a few days (covered with cheesecloth so the flies don't get in). Yeast makes wine! It makes vinegar! It makes sourdough bread! Then put it in the barrel.

However you do it, there will be a "mother", a lump of gelatinous stuff when you are done. Leave it in there. Use it for the next batch!

Love ~ Debbie

[Athenaeus]

And do not forget the dry piece of pasta