Looking for a VINEGAR MOTHER

[FranklinStreetWest]

Hello!

I am interested in starting to make vinegar to have on hand. I do a lot of cleaning and whatnot with it, and I want to be prepared for next years cucumber crop since this year is costing me an arm & leg buying vinegar. I was hoping that someone might have one to share or trade for?? I have a store on Etsy...mostly vintage stuff. My store name is the same as my screen name here. Let me know if you might be willing to help out.

Warm Regards -- Rachel

 

[Emerald]

I bought some Bragg's and it had a bit of mother in it and I used it to inoculate some nice wine I had.. the mother got bigger and in a few months I had more vinegar and a big mother lurking in the jar. Not sure if it would work for everyone but that method worked with making a kombucha SCOBY so I decided to try vinegar.
If I still had it I would share but hubby thought it was gross and tossed it one day.. Yes... I almost choked him.. but he is still here.. .. He doesn't touch my "science experiments" any more tho..

 

[FranklinStreetWest]

Oh my I would be grumpy if my other half did that!!

What did you keep yours in? I imagine it's quite odiferous? Did it stink up the room you grew it in?

 

[Emerald]

I just had it in a glass gallon jar with good cloth tied tight over the top and I didn't find it smelly at all.. maybe if I stuck my nose over it.
but I do a few batches of wine here and there and the smell from some of those really do stink up the house.
It was also in the corner of the kitchen. I guess with all the other stuff going on in my kitchen I didn't notice.
Even the kombucha doesn't smell up the place..
Not like the lovely dead mouse that my dear loving fur kid left under my favorite easy chair. Now that stank up the place.. Took me several hours to pinpoint the source..

 

[FranklinStreetWest]

Thanks!! That really puts it into perspective. I had a few extra minutes before work today, and I decided to look for the vinegar you mentioned at the nicer grocery store in town.... They had some small bottles for a just a few dollars, so I picked one up. I am excited to get it going. I have tried to make a couple different batches of wine, that just don't taste great in their current state. I thought that vinegar might be a good way to make use of them. And if they don't taste good as a vinegar I will use them for washing and maybe even concentrate the acid for use as an organic weed killer.

I have more success with beer making, and there's always extra left over from bottling. Not to mention the little of this and that left from various bottles of wine that I buy or am given. Thanks for the info. Wish me luck!

 

[Emerald]

The home brew wine I used it on was too strong and we tried to water it a bit and it just lost the nice flavor.. I only had two bottles left and we put the vinegar in it.. It was peach/white grape wine.. it made a great vinegar and I have to say that I did cut the vinegar a bit with water as it was too sour.. I don't know that much about vinegar so I am wondering if it was the extra strong alcohol made an extra strong vinegar.. and funny thing is.. the water just mellowed the vinegar tang and made it taste better. go figure..

 

[FranklinStreetWest]

From my limited reading thus far, I guess vinegar (acetic acid) for edible use is best around 5-6%. Also safe for preseving with at that percentage. There is a product on the boutique gardening market called "Weed Pharm" that is a 20% acetic acid solution, used as an organic herbicide. But at that strength it would certainly be dangerous to use for anything else....APPARently, you can "jack" normal vinegar, just like you would do apple cider (apple"jack") freeze out the H20 and concentrate the acid. You can do a titration test to acertain the acid content. And again, there is a cheap home test and a more technical version, though both seem to be based on the same principles. It's basically a PH test...

It sounds like you did your test the good ol' fashioned way...by taste! Peach vinegar sounds awesome. I have a green tomato wine that I used Lalvin 1118 yeast on and it fermented into something that could strip paint. It tastes lovely, until it hits the stomach, then it doesn't set well. That is the one I think might be suited to making weed killer with! Then I think I will keep a culture that I add beers to and another with red wines.

 

[Emerald]

Now here is a thought==if you add vinegar mother to a favorite beer do you end up with Malt vinegar? I may have to go do some google foo..
I don't have weeds in my yard.. I have edible landscaping..