(go to bottom of page for Frequently Asked Questions)

I’ve been working with vinegar mother for about 20 years now.  Initially I spent hours in wine isles reading labels trying to find unsulfited wine for my vinegar, to no avail.  We were experimenting with making beer at the time, having just returned from a year in Germany and spoiled rotten drinking Heffe Witzen, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to move into wine making (without sulfites) for pure fresh vinegar.

Winemaking turned out to be so easy and yummy that we gave up on beer and never again bought a bottle of wine with sulfites or other chemicals in it.

But winemaking and vinegar-making are not something you’re going to get immediate gratification from.  It takes months for wine to complete without chemicals, and once you have wine it takes up to 6 months more to have vinegar.  Worth the wait, IMHO, but there are potential complications because of length of time for conversion to vinegar.

Evaporation is probably the biggest cause of vinegar failure, with fruit flies contamination most likely being the second principal reason.  While wine is protected with an air lock, it’s very important to have air transfer for vinegar conversion.

Too much air transference causes the mixture to evaporate faster than conversion can take place.  Not enough air and conversion doesn’t take place at all and eventually the mixture will spoil.

Experience and Observations

• Don’t have more than a couple of inches of air space in your container.
• Too much air space encourages bacterial growth, and
• Allows quicker evaporation
• It only takes a little bit of air intake (holes) to get good air transference
• One hole about the size of a quarter for a 1 gallon jar is sufficient
•  Use smaller holes for smaller containers
•  Larger containers take only a slightly larger hole than a 1 gallon jar
• Plug or cover the hole
• The hole must be plugged or covered to both protect the mixture from fruit fly infiltration, and to help regulate air transference.
•  I like to use a section of an old nylon stocking over the mouth of the jar before screwing on the lid with the small hole.  As long as the air space in the jar and the hole aren’t too big, this is just about perfect for proper air transference – and best yet, keeps all the bugs out!
• A loose, dry cotton ball can be used in the smaller holes
• Try an old piece of t-shirt (clean, of course) tied over the top of your lid
• I use 100% cotton Flour Sack dish towels tied over the top of larger containers, adjusting the hole size with duct tape when needed.
•  A good idea, but bad execution:
• Since the ~Mother~ tends to float, there are many recommendations out there to use jars and containers with a siphon on the bottom to use your vinegar without opening the top.
• Major problem:  ~mother~ leaves trails of herself through the vinegar and it invariably clogs up the spigot almost immediately.
• A siphon hose will often clog with the mother threads also, and it’s difficult to clean out of the hose.
• Try filtering with a kitchen mesh strainer (not too fine, or it clogs too fast).

Use distilled water if you have chlorinated water, since the chlorine can kill off the vinegar culture.

Don’t throw away the leftover Mother!  It can be fed to animals (healthy!), put in the compost pile, or buried in the flower garden.  What a great way to recycle nutrients!

It took me almost 2 years to get enough of my own vinegar to be able to use in my pickles and canning.  But, WOW, was it worth the wait!  (I also substituted honey for sugar in my canning recipes with this vinegar and is it ever wonderful!)

There are a lot more unsuflited wines on the market than there were even 10 years ago.  If your local wine outlets don’t carry any… Ask for them!

Don’t be afraid to experiment!  We make specialty vinegars from all kinds of different wines and understand you can even get it converted to a Malt vinegar (takes a couple of conversion cycles) – and apple cider will (of course!) turn it into an Apple Cider Mother of Vinegar.

Have fun and stay healthy!

Copyright 2007 by Dee Berry

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q - can you add left over vinegar i have several bottles?

A - I don't recommend adding anything other than wine, water and Mother-of-Vinegar Starter until it has completed conversion into your own vinegar (up to 3 months).  ---  This is a living culture and you take the risk of killing it off, which will allow undesirable bacteria into the mix and possibly cause it to spoil or sour.  ---  Additionally, consider that 1) anything you add to your vinegar will change its taste.  Sometimes good things taste terrible when mixed together. and 2) Remember to remove enough fresh vinegar and mother to start a new batch before adding anything

Q - if i start another batch should i throw awy the old also how can i tell if its working should i see something? after how long

A - It will probably take about 6 weeks for you to see the 'mother' on the surface of your vinegar.  Sometimes it falls in and another one starts on top.  Not a problem.  And it probably won't smell too good right then, which is normal.  ---  If there's any kind of mold - toss it.

Q - how would you get store bought dates to ferment to use in distilled water to make a vinegar from it?

A - Sorry, I don't do fermentation.  Eddie says to talk to the folks at your local Home Brew Shop, and/or the library for either/both books on Ciders or Fermentation.

Q -  plus fruit flies are a problem can you recomend some plant that will beable to hang up in the kitchen thats safe on other animal birds that will chase out the fruit flies? thanks pamela i made kefir and had a almost impossible time with keeping out fruit flies.

A - Ugh.  Fruit flies.  They are probably the most important reason for using a cotton ball or very fine mesh (like nylon stockings) in the opening for your vinegar starter.  We once tried to use a piece of window screen, and it's not fine enough to keep out fruit flies.

Vinegar is a natural attractant for fruit flies.  You can actually lead the majority of them outside by moving a small bowl of vinegar towards and through the door.  We keep all our food scraps (including compostables) outside the door or further away to reduce the amount of fruit flies inside near food, and we hang those stick fly traps for the rest of them.  (no chemicals for us).

We'd love to hear more ideas from you folks, if you have a technique that works.  We'll even post it!