Vinegar season

[taxlady]

@taxlady, did you set that wine in a closet or behind a cabinet to check to see if it went to vinegar in the future?

I put it on a bookshelf that has a bunch of wine bottles, some empty, some full. I put a piece of paper towel over the top with an elastic. I don't want a bunch of dust and who-knows-what falling in it. I'm just wondering if I should maybe add a little bit of mother from some ACV. What do you and @larry_stewart think?

 

[blissful]

@taxlady, I didn't do that with mine, but it took a long long time. I can't see how a Tablespoon of active vinegar could do anything but speed up the process.

 

[taxlady]

@taxlady, I didn't do that with mine, but it took a long long time. I can't see how a Tablespoon of active vinegar could do anything but speed up the process.

Speeding up the process would be nice. I don't have a heck of a lot of patience these days.

 

[larry_stewart]

The only negative part is it does attract fruit flies. I keep them in a spare room in the garage. I use a coffee filter with a rubber band to keep them out of the vinegar during the process. One I used cheese cloth, but I must not have had enough layers, so apparently some of the fruit flies got in, laid eggs, and I saw these really tiny fruit fly larvae moving on the inner sides of the jar ( above the vinegar). needless to say I dumped the batch and no longer use cheese cloth as barrier .

If I have a mother or some raw vinegar I sometimes add a little to the new batch to speed it up ( as Bliss mentioned), but I've had great success with ( and without ) adding it, so I don't go out of my way. It's only if I have and if I remember .

 

[blissful]

Day 6 of 2024 pear vinegar. It's heavy on the pears, I filled the bucket a little too much before adding the water. It'll turn out good, and strong. Right now it smells like wine. I asked mr bliss to smell it, he says, 'I can smell it all the way over here!'

 

[blissful]

The pear/sugar/water has been fermenting for 2 weeks now. The pears 95% of them are holding shape and not mushy. Usually I'd strain them now.
Since I didn't freeze the pears or chop them, the flesh isn't broken down so all the potential sugars haven't been extracted into the liquid yet.

I went to read about it. 'As it ferments, the water will go from clear to very cloudy, and then will become clear again. When the water is clear again, you're ready to move onto the second ferment. That said, some fruit vinegars will remain fairly cloudy, so it can sometimes be tricky to use the cloudiness of the water as a guide'
Some recipes said 2 weeks before straining, some said 3 weeks before straining.

I'm going to keep up the daily stirring and let it go another week. It currently smells very fruity and like wine. The liquid is a little cloudy not very cloudy.

Here's something new: "For very strong vinegar, you can also add in some sulfite-free wine, tequila, or vodka in place of some of the water."
I have never heard of anyone doing that to get stronger vinegar. It makes sense.

 

[larry_stewart]

I was supposed to check my vinegar yesterday. It's been 6 weeks since I started it, and 4 weeks since I strained it. I gave it the sniff test, definitely smells vinegary, but probably wont get to it until the weekend.

I was also supposed to check the Miso I got going, but that will have to wait til the weekend too.

 

[blissful]

@larry_stewart did you start a thread on miso, or is it somewhere on here? I'll want to read about how that is going for you.

 

[larry_stewart]

@larry_stewart did you start a thread on miso, or is it somewhere on here? I'll want to read about how that is going for you.

I didnt , but. I will . Only reason I brought it up in this thread is because it is sitting next to my vinegar.

 

[taxlady]

Wow Larry, making miso. I read that tamari is the liquid from making miso. I don't know if that is true. Will you be collecting any liquid?

 

[larry_stewart]

Wow Larry, making miso. I read that tamari is the liquid from making miso. I don't know if that is true. Will you be collecting any liquid?

I actually didn't know that, and just looked it up and you're right! I wasn't planning on collecting the liquid, but now after learning this, Im going to look more into it.

One thing I did notice the other day ( not knowing this) is how much liquid has separated from the pressed bean mixture. I did this once before ( a few years ago) and I dont remember as much liquid as I have this time.

I probably wont get to it until the weekend, but Ill start a thread and post pics of what I did and what I got now.

 

[taxlady]

I actually didn't know that, and just looked it up and you're right! I wasn't planning on collecting the liquid, but now after learning this, Im going to look more into it.

One thing I did notice the other day ( not knowing this) is how much liquid has separated from the pressed bean mixture. I did this once before ( a few years ago) and I dont remember as much liquid as I have this time.

I probably wont get to it until the weekend, but Ill start a thread and post pics of what I did and what I got now.

I'm looking forward to reading that thread.

 

[blissful]

I'm looking forward to reading that thread.

me too.

 

[dragnlaw]

me too!

Now you cannot get out of it Larry

 

[blissful]

Now the batch of pear vinegar has been fermenting 3 weeks, a week longer than what I usually do. The pears had softened up a little but they all stayed in quarters. We strained them. Dumped the pears in the garden. Brought the liquid back in to ferment for another 3-7 weeks until it is vinegar. It's very fruity smelling. Not diluted. I bet it will be stronger than my usual stuff.