Making your own home-made vinegar

The benefits of vinegar have been praised since ancient times. Even though producing your own vinegar does not require any particular knowledge or take up a lot of your time, we hardly consume these days anything other than industrial vinegars that have no soul and no flavour…

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The benefits of vinegar have been praised since ancient times. Even though producing your own vinegar does not require any particular knowledge or take up a lot of your time, we hardly consume these days anything other than industrial vinegars that have no soul and no flavour…

Why make your own vinegar?

Firstly, because it´s easy and also because home made vinegar or good artisanal vinegars are incomparably rich.
While modern procedures allow the injection of air and seeding to transform 20,000 litres of wine in a few hours, they do not respect the aromas: they dissolve them!
That is why industrials artificially perfume their vinegar.
So, what happens to the therapeutic virtues and benefits that sour wine has been credited with for centuries when it is prepared in a reactor?
Vinegar has lost its soul.

All you need is a little patience: wine + air = vinegar…

Making your own vinegar does not present any particular difficulty. Shake your wine to aerate it and place it in your vinegar maker. That´s it!
The bacteria responsible for making wine acidic are present in air and the transformation of the alcohol into acetic acid is a natural process.
Mother of vinegar is not essential. It is a good idea to grow it because it is a precious reservoir of good bacteria, offers a good starting point and accelerates the transformation, but it is not essential and you can make your own.
Under favourable conditions, it will take two weeks for you to see a veil form on the surface of your wine. Your mother of vinegar has begun. It will develop and thicken until it forms a gelatinous mass that is the same colour as wine.
Its growth depends on three things:

oxygen (the mycoderma aceti fermenter is made from aerobial bacteria that need air),

temperature that is between 20 and 30°C,

and the alcohol that it feeds on (the bacteria are oxidised and transform the alcohol into acetic acid by attaching an oxygen molecule to an alcohol molecule).

Be patient. At first, your vinegar will be a bit rough, but if you give it some time it will become more rounded, lose it aggressive nature and develop softer and more complex aromas.
Aerate it, but beware of flies. Contrary to what they say, you can catch flies with vinegar. At least, some of them!
(Drosophila melanogaster or the vinegar fly. These are the little insects that you see around over-ripe fruit on the ground).

The method is ongoing.

With a vinegar maker, the production is ongoing. Once your vinegar has been made, siphon some off for consumption, bottle it and add some new wine. A new cycle begins.
If the mother of vinegar is well-fed, it will develop and increase in size. The only active part is that which is in contact with the air. Mothers of vinegar that are found at the bottom of the vinegar maker are dead and there is no need to keep them.
However, when filling the vinegar maker, do not drown your mother. Ensure that it is still in contact with the air. You can put some on little sticks to help it to float.

Making great vinegar, old vinegar.

Creating and enhancing authentic vinegar does not present any particular difficulties.
Once the vinegar is made, whether in the vinegar maker or in a keg depending on the method you choose, remove it, filter it and place it in a barrel.
Storing it in a barrel is what is going to give it its special flavour. How long you store it will depend on the age and size of your barrels. The smaller and newer the barrel, the sooner it will make your vinegar woody.
For small domestic production, a basis of 3 months in a cellar seems reasonable. It´s all a question of taste. While in the barrel, remove a little vinegar, aerate in the same way you would wine and judge its maturity. Once it is ready, all you have to do is bottle it. This is when your vinegar will reach its peak.

The golden rules

- The vinegar must be kept away from the light.
- Aerate the vinegar, but protect it from flies.
- Keep your vinegar between 20 and 30°C.
- Shake the wine to add oxygen before pouring it into your vinegar maker.