I want to turn some of my wine into wine vinegar.
I have seen 'mother' available from the local wine store for reds and whites. Is there a real difference? A friend of mine has mother that works just fine on his wine and he makes a it with a blend of red and white grapes.
Can I use kit wine that has been stopped with sulfates?
Can I use kit wine that has sorbate added?
What is the best way to store mother, to keep it active?
Thanks
Boatman
Mother of Vinegar is like yeast, it will work to turn alcohol (and sometimes sugar) into vinegar, any type of mother will work with any type of alcohol, some just work "better" (flavour, alcohol level, etc.) with certain types of alcohol plus the mother comes convently pre-packaged in a base of whatever it is suppossed to work best in (red wine base for red wine, etc) so if you don't mind contaminating your white wine with a red wine base (and the less optimal vinegar strain), or vise versa, don't worry about it.
Maybe, depends on the sulfate levels and the mother in question. Ask the supplier.
Probablely not, but again it would depend on the sorbate level and the mother in question. Again ask the supplier.
When purchased from a supplier it comes in small glass jars (about jam sized) seems to store ok in those at or below room temperature, I have heard of people using mother from organic apple cider vinegar with great success (I have no idea how old said vinegar was) but I would guess that mother lasts as long or longer than yeast. Ken
I make vinegar; I use my wines for the base and all of them are sulfited to 0.8 ppm molecular. As long as you follow the normal process there should not be an issue with normally sulfited wines. Red or white, it's acetobacter that does the work.
You don't need to buy a mother if your friend gives you some vinegar. Just use 1 part vinegar, two parts wine, 1 part water. That reduces the sulfite and the alcohol content. Most store bought vinegar is dead as an FYI.
I would not use sorbated wine, but have no idea if it's an issue or not...
That 'clump' you see is often called the mother around here but it's only celulose, a byproduct of the bacteria at work. The bacteria are present in the actual vinegar, you do not need the clump.
It's pretty hard to kill a mother, they can live longer than any of us. Some use high sulfite levels, some heat to 160 F for 5 minutes to kill them. There is no good reason to kill them that I can think of. Vinegar prefers warmer temps to cold when converting, but room temperature is fine. It can take several month to convert though.
Storage at home temperatures is not an issue, mine are several years old.
I think the main difference between red and white mother is the color of the end product. If you use white to start a batch of red it will just dilute the color a little. If you use red to start a white, it will never end up white but will end as a Rose' which is not what you were aiming for. Now if you want a Rose' vinegar ...
Ray
Joe,
Thanks for your guidance. Does the vinegar get better with age?
Is barrel aging better than glass?
Have you tried making any herbal vinegars?
Boatman
I doubt it, it's pretty good at 6 months. It never sits around long enough for me to find out. I have 9 liters I just pulled off and it will be probably gone in 4 months. A lot of people want the vinegar. I buy the 375 ml bottles to give it away in.
Probably. My wines are pretty oakey to begin with; I also throw all of the spent Stavin Beans from a years winemaking into the vinegar crock.
If I had a spent 5 or 12 gallon barrel I would use it. I used to use carboys but getting that cellulose out can be a real pain. I now use new 3 gallon crocks.
Not yet, I'm making the 'rose' vinegar Ray refered to right now to do that with. Regards, Joe
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.