How to make home-made vinegar

Vinegar is one of the easiest things to be self-sufficient with once you're past the initial hurdle of Getting Started.

That's because it requires only three ingredients:

1. Some alcohol
2. A vinegar culture - or mother
3. Time

Ok, you also need somewhere to do the fermentation, but in contrast to making cider you don't need the container to be airtight and so on, because the acetic acid bacteria which create vinegar need oxygen to do their job.

Getting some alcohol

I mean, you know how to get alcohol - so that's the easy part, I guess. But it's useful if you have a steady supply of left over alcohol.

I have a lot of apples, so I ferment about 10 litres of cider every year specifically for making vinegar...

...but if you're not into that - no problem. You can use the half bottles of wine you never finish anyway, that's the traditional French method, after all.

Only one important thing to consider; the higher the alcohol percentage, the more acidic your vinegar will end up being once the bacteria convert the alcohol to acid.

Getting a vinegar culture

Getting ahold of a vinegar culture can prove more challenging. There are a couple of methods, either one may suit you:

1. You can source some organic non-pasteurized vinegar with a live culture in it, either from a shop or from someone you know who makes their own
2. You can try to let nature take its course and let the acetic acid bacteria in your local environment spontaneously colonize some alcohol you leave out

I've tried both, and I basically had no luck with #2 - instead of a vinegar culture, I got various pellicle yeast infections.

Once you've already got a culture going, these type of infections will stop being a problem, as the liquid will be acidic enough to prevent these types of bacteria from growing.

Fermenting and bottling

After obtaining a mother you can start making vinegar. Simply pour the mother & the alcohol into a container of some sort and cover with something where oxygen (but not insects) can get in and out.

The important thing here is to start small - if you have 500 ml of vinegar, you should only add about 1 litre of alcohol to it. If you add too much alcohol, the liquid solution might not be acidic enough to keep other bacteria away.

I use a drinks dispenser with some cloth and rubber bands - but you can also get nice French vinegar jars which look pretty while they do their thing.

Note the tap - it's very useful when it comes to bottling. If you want your vinegar clear, you can filter it before bottling - I do this if there's a lot of gunk at the bottom of the jar.

I bottle in 500ml glass bottles with a flip top. Initially the vinegar will be nice and clear...

... but once you open it you will notice that it will become a little cloudy and there's bits floating around in it. Don't worry about that, that's because it's a live product - when you add fresh oxygen to the vinegar, the fermentation process will restart. But it's completely safe for consumption 😄

When is it done?

Well, that's the kicker - it depends on temperature, the specific culture/mother you have, and how much oxygen is available for the bacteria to work.

I usually leave my vinegar to ferment for at least some months, when it smells strongly of vinegar, but you can use it as soon as you think it's tasty.

Some people - well, restaurants really - have started to use fish bubblers to speed up the process, but I haven't gone there....yet 😏