Just when I thought I understood the relationship between vinegar and wine I was told that you can make vinegar directly from grape juice and water. Does anyone have any information on this method? How do the pros make vinegar?
thanks
Joe
The vinegar bacteria can work with the yeast converting alcohol to vinegar as fast as its made.
I'm pretty sure that's how true balsamic's are made, they ferment and infect the must at the same time. I have no experience with any of this so can't speak on the process. I'm not sure I understand adding water, some good vinegars are made from partially raisined grapes, others boil the must to concentrate it a bit. The goal is not necessarily a 'dry' vinegar in those cases though, they have a residual sweetness to them; they age them quite a while also.
Adding 1 part water, 1 part vinegar to two parts wine is common if you want to end up with around 5% acetic acid vinegar. That's typically how I make mine, most of my wine is 12% alcohol v/v. I really don't use store bought vinegar anymore since making my own, it really does taste better. I only use store bought for pickling since it's really cheap. Regards, Joe
Joe, a couple months ago I bought some mother of vinegar and added it to some of my red wine and white wine. I have a gallon of each. Prior to adding the vinegar, I added about 2 cups of water to the wine to dilute it a bit since I heard that the mother culture might not like a high alcohol to start with. So far nothing. There is a hint of vinegar to both but no more than when I added the mother culture. Any ideas why it is not working? I have it on the porch and far away from my wine cellar. I have the top of the jugs stuffed with paper towels so air can get in. It is pretty bad when a home winemaker can't even make vinegar.
Paul, some issue with google stopped this from going out, apologies. Joe
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