Vinegar season

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blissful said:
@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?
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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?
 
@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.
 
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 .
 
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!'
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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?
 
taxlady said:
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?
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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.
 
larry_stewart said:
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.
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I'm looking forward to reading that thread.
 
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.
 
larry_stewart said:
A mother formed on top of my vinegar, then sunk to the bottom. Another one formed on top, then that one sunk when I moved the jar. Is there anything I should or shouldn't be doing ?
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Nope. That's what they do, they form on the top, thin and thick ones, then they drop to the bottom. At the bottom of my gallons of vinegar there are layers of mothers. Before I use the gallon I usually strain it, then when it is half gone, I strain it again. I don't like the mother substance directly into my food, the texture is slimy. You can eat it, or use it, it won't hurt you, I just don't like the texture of it.
 
blissful said:
Nope. That's what they do, they form on the top, thin and thick ones, then they drop to the bottom. At the bottom of my gallons of vinegar there are layers of mothers. Before I use the gallon I usually strain it, then when it is half gone, I strain it again. I don't like the mother substance directly into my food, the texture is slimy. You can eat it, or use it, it won't hurt you, I just don't like the texture of it.
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It looks like something that would be fun to throw at someone. It would probably make a good noise on impact. Sorry, thats. just the inner 10 yearly coming out.
 
The mother can be used in making more vinegar, just toss it in the fruit scraps and sugar or no sugar and water. Or for kombucha.
Kombucha does the same thing as vinegar, creating a 'kombucha scoby'.
revolutionfermentation.com

How Much Alcohol Is in Kombucha?

You have started brewing homemade kombucha, and you are wondering how much alcohol is in your kombucha. The answer is here! And if you want to control the alcohol content (whether high or low…
revolutionfermentation.com revolutionfermentation.com
People that are learning either might want your mother or scoby to start their own.
 
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