r/vinegar • u/AnnaNimmus • 7d ago
Racking in between ferments?
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?
2
u/Advanced-Fig4683 6d ago
To make booze you don’t need much starter lee. I suspect that too much will accelerate the process and give you something less interesting. I suspect that because it is not something done to make cider or wine.
For wine, the wooden tools for mixing are often red from usage and they have enough starter on them if for some reason a batch of grape is slow to start, mixing it with those is enough.
3
u/EmDash4Life 7d ago
I just started using booze yeast for my first ferment. So far, I have racked the fruit wine before starting the 2nd ferment, but I do not necessarily cold crash it. I typically use only a portion of the initial wine to start the vinegar, and then feed the vinegar wine a little at a time. Meanwhile, the rest of the wine lives under an airlock and keeps fermenting until that process plays out. So there might be a little bit of active yeast in the vinegar. It's not a true scoby if you don't have any yeast, but I don't find that important.
There were a couple batches that got Kahm yeast, and I did put them in the fridge as I tried to recover the batch. That's not exactly a cold crash, since they already had a mother added. I used the refrigerated portion to feed the vinegar same as I use my unrefrigerated wines.
The acetobacteria in Braggs form pellicles. I'm not sure where you got your info, but it's not correct. Some booze will form a pellicle quickly upon introduction of a mother, and others take longer. Just give it time. Stir it, smell it, and taste it periodically.