Found a mother in my vinegar!!!!

[freemotion]

Woohoo!!!! I have NOT been able to make vinegar from my homemade wine (probably a good thing, huh?) and it would slowly evaporate or get moldy. I also put a three quart bottle of apple cider (all natural) in the closet on Jan 2 with a gauze 4x4 rubber-banded on top and it still smells like apples, not vinegar. Even with a glug of Braggs ACV in both bottles.

Today I was making some catnip/lemon balm mosquito vinegar and found a very old partial bottle of Heinz....probably several years old, as I've been using Bragg's for our salad dressings. It had a mother in it....I think! Never seen one. It looked kinda like a pale, thinner kombucha mother, complete with the darker stringy goobers floating under it in the liquid.

I strained it out and gently tore it in half. Half went into the cider, and half went into the peach wine vinegar-wannabe.

Will that work?

 

[TanksHill]

Wow!!! Very cool.

Your pantry is like a treasure chest!!!!


I started some ACV a while back using fresh made juice and the bottom of my Bragg's bottle. I keep getting a thin layer of mold across the top. I have pulled it off twice now.

Is the juice ruined? Should I dump it?

I have never done ACV before.

g

 

[Neko-chan]

I've never done it before either. I've got a jar with apple peelings and cores, that i filled with a bit of water and some ACV and the round flat pale thing and the boogery bits I could capture in the bottom of it. i have no idea if it'll make vinegar, but I'm willing to try.

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, I occasionally find mother in older bottles of Heinz pasteurized a/c vinegar too. Usually with a big "splat!" LOL

I can't imagine any reason it *wouldnt* work as a starter for "vinegarizing" cider. That's a good idea, I'd like to try it sometime too, do it and let us know what happens!

Pat

 

[Marianne]

The first time I did homemade stuff, I thought the goober on the top was mold. After doing some googling, I found out that it was mother. From what I read, mother can look different.

That almost reads funny!! (my mother looks different than your mother)

I'm glad I didn't pitch it. It didn't smell icky, so I kept it and bingo! It turned into vinegar just nicely. Why not give it a bit of time first?

 

[TanksHill]

The first time I did homemade stuff, I thought the goober on the top was mold. After doing some googling, I found out that it was mother. From what I read, mother can look different.

That almost reads funny!! (my mother looks different than your mother)

I'm glad I didn't pitch it. It didn't smell icky, so I kept it and bingo! It turned into vinegar just nicely. Why not give it a bit of time first?

Was it green and fuzzy?

g

 

[Marianne]

Oh! well no, it wasn't!!

 

[valmom]

Yea for a volunteer mother! (yes, that does sound funny ) The first time I tried making vinegar, I took the last quarter or so of a bottle of Braggs and filled it up with unfiltered, unpasteurized apple cider from the orchard down the street. It formed a mother (which actually is disgusting looking, but wasn't green and fuzzy) and eventually went to vinegar very nicely. Give it time, it will probably work.

 

[TanksHill]

I think I might try a different type of apple juice. I have another bottle of Bragg's almost done.

The juice I used was made in my juicer. I had a pile of "aged" apples that needed using.

I will leave it a bit and see what happens.

g

 

[Neko-chan]

Woohoo! I have a jar of "ACV", that I started at first with apple peels and cores, water, about half a cup of raw unfiltered Braggs, and the boogery stuff and whitish disc thingy that was in the Braggs bottle. I "feed" it every now and then with more apple peels/cores, and just leave it alone.

Today, I checked on it, and it smells much more vinegary than when I first started it, there's little bubbles all over it, and there's some bubbly boogery stuff on top that I'm assuming is my new mother!

i iz pleased.