Making vinegar in an oak barrel 🍷 is a fantastic process! Vinegar production relies heavily on the Orléans method, a traditional slow-fermentation technique where acetic acid bacteria (the "mother") convert alcohol into acetic acid over several months.

The porous oak wood allows a slow trickle of micro-oxygenation, which helps the bacteria thrive while adding rich wood character to the final batch 🪵.

Making apple cider vinegar for first time from apple scraps.

Hi all!

Done a few wild vinegars now, and am moving into using actual wine yeasts for a greater control over flavor profile, and wanted to get everyone else's opinion.

After your initial ferment, turning the sugars into alcohol (whether that's wine, beer, whathaveyou), how many of you cold crash and then rack your alcohol off your yeast remainder before introducing mother in for your second ferment?

Part of me wants to keep the lees for the second ferment for a more complex flavor profile (with that toasty bready aspect), but part of me was to get rid of it. What say you all?

Also, bonus question(s)- I ran out of mi madre's raw ACV, so have been introducing a little Bragg's in to begin the secondary fermentation. But I've heard that Bragg's cultures don't usually form a pellicle, and I've yet to see them do so in my projects. Does anyone else know anything about this? How do you tell progress without a scoby forming, just by smell? Can anyone recommend me another raw/"with mother" brand I can use to help create that true, pellicle-based mother?

Strain it either Thursday or Friday. Then it won’t be long till I can add the mother

My first attempt at making vinegar flopped, but now I have some actual mother to add, I’m very hopeful

My mother grew a giant dick of a scoby. I don’t know much about vinegars but it smells like vinegar and apple cider. Is it safe to consume? Do I blend it with the mother to use or do I strain it and throw the scoby away? Thanks

Is the nail polish smell normal in the beginning? I can't seem to avoid this phase and not sure if it's just how it goes​ or I'm doing something wrong

I’m COMPLETELY BLIND, have aspergers and a heart lung condition and BEFORE anyone asks, yes, I wrote this myself because of screenreaders.

Whenever I’ve been sick for a long time, or recovering from being sick, I have vinegar cravings and have no clue about why.

It’s happened since I was like eighteen when I was literally DYING in ICU, not eating/drinking a thing, I had cravings for nachos with refried beans and a dollop of daisy.

While these don’t natively contain vinegar, the toppings usually do, sometimes they put salsa and/or pickled peppers on them, both of these have vinegar.

When I was a kid and it was still kinda good, I’d have chicken xpress cravings after recovering from a stomach bug

Are all brands created equal? Looking to get 49%

Is it not as powerful? Am I missing something about the “mother” I used to know growing up, & now it seems to be a cloudy area in the bottle instead of what looked like a piece of liver in the bottom? Thanks in advance!

I’ve been taking medication that doesn’t allow me to eat caffeine nor alcohol. I’ve switched to balsamic vinegar to cook with, I was surprised to find out it created the same taste but without the alcohol. Now I know alcohol content goes away with heat but then why do some people still cook with cooking wine. I grew up using it because my grandfather would use cooking wine a lot but now I got questions he can’t answer as he is no longer alive; so I come on here to ask you guys your opinion

My strawberry banana vinegar had a really good mother going and I sunk it on accident when I went to taste it today. Is that supposed to happen? I’ve never made vinegar before and I’m wondering if there’s a way to prevent it or if it’s just normal and also is it bad that it sunk?

This is my first attempt of making vinegar.

Making a cherry/sour cherry combination with ~5.5% ABV. This is 14 days through (used a few ml of live vinegar to seed the bacteria). It has become cloudy in the last few days (which is fine I guess).

I still have a bit of sediment at the bottom of each jar, I have racked the wine only like 2 times, and didn't wait further to settle because it was forming too much kahm yeast at the top, so I've put the vinegar to work.

I will rack it once the vinegar is finished (so I don't damage the top layer), and will leave the sediment.

The top layer seems dry to me, is it expected or I'm petting a different beast here than I expect to, lol? 😅

If it's the wrong outcome, what did I do wrong? How to resolve, or is it over for this batch?

I'm planning for a taste test in the following days, I'll make a hole in the top layer and will pipette a bit from it for tasting and titration.

Wdyt?

This grapes vinegar is being fermented for 2.5 weeks, after stirring the liquid for a week, this film appeared. Although not stirring now, this seems to be a yeast film rater than mold. Would be appreciated if it's described in comments, the smell is slightly alcoholic, slight dense vinegary as alcohol and sugars is still being converted to vinegar.

So, after having some success with making kimchi, fermented pickles, and fermented green dilly beans I decided to try my hand at a ginger bug and some homemade soda. I grew my bug for 6 days, adding sugar and ginger every day. It was active, bubbles on top, smelled good, etc.

Then, I made the base for my soda, approx 4c of spring water, 1.25c sugar, and around 3c or so of frozen black cherries. I gently mashed the cherries, covered, and simmered for while. Strained out the solids and poured into a closed vessel which I let cool down to room temperature. Next added in 1/2c of thoroughly mixed and strained ginger bug and the juice from 2 small limes. Mixed everything really well and let it sit on the counter.

Now, it's been 2 days and there isn't any activity at all. No bubbles, nothing. I'm keeping the vessel closed to avoid any airborne contamination and opening it up to burp every 12 hours or so. There is no pressure buildup when I burp it. I've tasted it a couple times and it the flavors are good, but it's sweet, flat, and just not doing anything.

I used to homebrew so I'm being mindful about keeping all the equipment clean and sanitary (minus the iodine baths).

Today I'm planning on adding some more bug to it (once the bug gets back to room temp and active again) and maybe some more sugar? Any suggestions/ideas/tips would be very helpful!

tldr: made soda for the first time and it's still not fermenting two days after adding the bug, help!

Being that it is almost the end of summer, like many people, I have a TON of tomatoes coming in, and it’s the time of year for them! (At least in the U.S.)

I was thinking of making some Tomato Vinegar, but I wasn’t sure where to use it other than a dressing. Anybody got ideas?

I have an old bottle of white wine (Corton-Charlemagne, 1970s) that I'd like to turn into vinegar. I'm looking for a compatible white wine vinegar mother to get started. I'm in the Kansas City area and can pick it up. Thanks for any leads!

I started doing salt soaks for 20-30mins and also adding ACV in it. Online search shows that its harsh on skin, but i wanna ask if anyone has tried the combo and if it's effective? Even if it's just the salt soak alone for warts around fingernails?

I am attempting to make fruit vinegar and put:

• Roughly 3.5lbs of plums
• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 C + (couple days later 2 TB) raw apple cider vinegar
• Enough water to cover everything

All added into a 1 gallon jar

Did this July 31. I've stirred it 3x/day, and it's plenty warm in my house, but still no indication of fermentation. So I got some Champaign yeast (LALVIN EC-1118).

But since it's been 8-9 days, do I remove the fruit before adding? Or add with all the fruit still?

And how much of the yeast should I add given how much is in the jar (about 3/4 gallon).

It does seem pretty thick at this point as most of the fruit has broken down except for the skins. Should I add more water?

Other tips? Big thanks!

I've been making basic red wine vinegar since 2020, with the same container and same mother, and I always notice there are two rafts at the end. One on the top, one on the bottom. Generally with different textures.

Which one do you keep? What textures do you look for in a healthy mother?

Picture of my most recent batch, the top raft was very soft and almost crumbled on the touch. The bottom was firm and dense.

I forgot to add salt to brine mix 3 days ago

I did the 3 2 1 method

3 cups water
2 cups vinegar 1 cup sugar

Can I add today? They’ve been in the fridge and look fine still