I was in this shop and I was tasting all the flavored vinegar. It was like a brewery filled my little cup from the taps. Must of had 20 different flavors. They were all made from imported balsamic vinegar. Which is vinegar made from white wine aged in charred barrels. Alot of the stuff at the groceries around here that say balsamic aren’t. Anyway some of the vinegars were light and made from the same grape but not aged in the barrel. The flavors we’re infused. Now I came home and want to try to make some flavored malt vinegar. I have some organic cider vinegar with the mother and added some to a spiced Porter I made. Let’s see we’re this goes. Anyone do vinegars ?
I made some unintentionally once.
I made cider vinegar 3 times unintentially. All you have to do is make cider like normal but then leave it sit exposed to air for too long of a time. I’m a lazy brewer/cidermaker so that’s how it happened to me – too much head space and too much time. Any cider or wine exposed to air will go to vinegar over time, or you can add “mother” of vinegar to it if you want to intentionally make vinegar. The mother is almost identical to that of kombucha if you’ve ever heard of that.
Well my first experiment will be with already made beer. 3:1 beer/natural cider vinegar (with mother) under an air lock to control what gets in . Like beer and cider sure you can spontaneous ferment but I’m trying to control off flavors. Another way I’ve read is to use wort, must, or juice and add champagne yeast and the mother together. The champagne yeast will take off first then the mother all under the control of an airlock. It’s alot like making a Bret beer I think.
I sometimes use the decanted liquid from a yeast starter to make vinegar. Pour off the liquid, add some vinegar mother, and cover it with a coffee filter and rubber band.
That may work for a base vinegar since it would be light and no additional flavors. Pasteurize it and add fruit or spices. I was thinking use ng some late runnings
Just an update. The gingerbread Porter that I added the mother came out awesome. Can’t wait to make some of my other beer flavored . I have fruit wine and mead I may expierimenting with. Nature vinegar has many healthy benefits just like most fermented food. It has to have the mother in it though. Regular vinegar not so much except for settling a stomach
