How do you make your own ACV?

[freemotion]

I know the answer to that one! White vinegar is very different...it is distilled from grains. It is a much harsher vinegar. I use it primarily for cleaning here.

UD, did you know that you can make lovely pickles through fermentation, without any vinegar? YUM!!! I made only one quart last season because I am not a huge fan of vinegar pickles. The rest of my cukes became fermented salsa (also yum!) I will be planting MANY cuke plants this year and making GALLONS of these fermented dills because they were very different and amazingly wonderful. And much cheaper to make....cukes, herbs for flavoring, salt, and water. Ferment at room temp 3 days, into the fridge for a few weeks. Done.

 

[urban dreamer]

I know the answer to that one! White vinegar is very different...it is distilled from grains. It is a much harsher vinegar. I use it primarily for cleaning here.

UD, did you know that you can make lovely pickles through fermentation, without any vinegar? YUM!!! I made only one quart last season because I am not a huge fan of vinegar pickles. The rest of my cukes became fermented salsa (also yum!) I will be planting MANY cuke plants this year and making GALLONS of these fermented dills because they were very different and amazingly wonderful. And much cheaper to make....cukes, herbs for flavoring, salt, and water. Ferment at room temp 3 days, into the fridge for a few weeks. Done.

Well , my siggy says learn something new everyday! I have four (soon to be 8) cucumber plants in my backyard! My SO loves pickles! Do you have a recipe for fermenting cukes (how much water + salt, ect.) That sounds really neat and super easy! I know I have heard that WV can be used for cleaning. I just didn't know where it came from.

 

[rebecca100]

Here we go on the fermenting again!!!!!! LOL!! One of these days I am going to try to screw up something more than kraut. Which only I can mess up. I may try some ACV as soon as I get some apples to start with. I have ALWAYS wanted to try to make vinegar, but I was told if you do it wrong that it could make you very sick and it scared me of trying it. I don't know if it was true or if the person was just trying to discourage me-which is very possible.

 

[ORChick]

Rebecca, I don't think one can screw up when vinegar making Nature really wants to make vinegar, and humans have been doing all they can to prevent her from doing so - pastuerization, sulfites in wine. A quote from one of my books - "Still Room Cookery" by Grace Firth, 1977 - "To make vinegar deliberately in stillroom days was like deliberately breeding the cat; kittens and vinegar came naturally". I've said it before, but I'll repeat it here: vinegar is the end product, it won't turn into something else, it doesn't go "bad". Vinegar is the result, if you will, of other things "going bad", but only if you were really trying for wine, or apple cider, or something like that. If it smells like vinegar it is vinegar, and won't make you sick (unless you have problems with storebought vinegar, then I wouldn't try it). Go for it, have fun

 

[rebecca100]

Hee Hee! I guess if it is like kittens then I can probably do it!

 

[freemotion]

UD, look for the thread, "What are you fermenting today?" for lots of ideas, instructions, recipes, and disaster stories! Which aren't really disasters, but to me, having a funny disaster story to tell is worth the price of the food and the mess!

I also recommend the book, Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. There are also videos online with him talking about and showing simple methods. I think there are links to them and others on the fermenting thread.

 

[urban dreamer]

UD, look for the thread, "What are you fermenting today?" for lots of ideas, instructions, recipes, and disaster stories! Which aren't really disasters, but to me, having a funny disaster story to tell is worth the price of the food and the mess!

I also recommend the book, Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. There are also videos online with him talking about and showing simple methods. I think there are links to them and others on the fermenting thread.

I can't find the thread. I mentioned to Zach yesterday about learning to make fermented pickles and he gagged. Then he said " you mean like the pickles that come out of the wooden barrels?" I told him I thought those were the ones and he gave up an old pickle jar to experiment with when the cuke's start giving fruit this summer. Any ideas?

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I got that puppy bookmarked 68 pages & growing!
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2652

 

[FarmerDenise]

I ended up with mother in my homemade ACV, but I didn' see it, til I had strained it and bottled it. When I went to use is a few weeks later, a big slimy glug came out, and I figured it must be the mother! I saved it in a seperate jar.

When making vinegar, you first make alcohol, then it turns to vinegar.

Applejuice turns to hard cider then to vinegar.
Grapes are juiced, then turn to wine, then to vinegar.
We had a fellow from the winery get cases of the old past their drinking point wines and make them into wine vinegar. I still have a bottle of his vinegar. I add the little bit of leftover wine every now and again to keep it going.

My understanding is, that if you add mother to your juice, the process happens faster.

I didn't add any mother to my apple juice last summer, I did however have a little bit of unpasteurized ACV from the store and added it to the 3 or so gallons of juice.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I made my own acv this fall. I got a bunch of apples from my friend's tree. I cored them and then chopped them up in a blender adding water to make it work. I poured the resulting liquidy mess through a sieve and then a cloth to strain out the solids. I used a 5 gallon bucket. Then I covered the bucket with an old tshirt and let it sit for about a week until I could find some large glass bottles to pour the fermenting mess into. I stirred it once a day. It turned into hard cider and then into vinegar. This took about 2-3 months. I strained it once more and bottled it. At first I covered the bottles with a piece of cloth and a rubber band until I was sure the frementation process had stopped. Then I screwed on the bottle caps.

Considering the price I have to pay for organic unpasturized unfiltered acv, if I can find it, I think this was well worth the effort.

Apples have a naturally occuring yeast on their skins, which enables them to ferment.

This is the method i am getting ready to use.

I want to know, when you put it in the blender and add water, should try to add as little water as possible? Or can you add water to pump up your volume? I don't have very many apples, so it won't make too much, but when i'm done, i'll have the mother. These are store-bought apples, but in a couple weeks or so, i should have some fresh off-the-tree apples from a friend's house. I'm so excited!

I'm planning to just use mason jars. That'll work, right?