[Sca-cooks] making malt vinegar

[Stefan li Rous]

Renata asked:
> Second, since Fish and Chips comes to mind, how is Malt Vinegar  
> made? After
> all, wine vinegar comes from wine and cider vinegar comes from  
> cider, but what
> does malt vinegar come from? Is there enough alcohol in beer to  
> make vinegar?

Actually to make vinegar from wine you have to dilute the wine down,  
so the beer or ale works as a starting point quite well.

The following is from the Vinegar-art file in the Florilegium:
<<< The truly natural way is to let the wine or beer sit in the open,  
uncovered for
a couple days until it starts to have a vinegary odor, then cover it  
with cloth
and let it mature. The vinegar-producing bacteria need air to live  
and reproduce
so don't cap it air-tight. Keeping it warm speeds the process. It is  
not a fast
process, taking weeks to months to produce a satisfactory product.
Vinegar made from beer is more properly called "alegar". It may have  
been
introduced as early as Roman times. Around the 17th century, alegar  
began to
take the place of verjuice (unripe grape juice) in pickles and  
sauces, and began
to usurp the name "vinegar", previously only applied to wine-based  
products.
Although other kinds of vinegar were still made, malt vinegar became  
the most
common. The suffix "egar" meaning sour, with the Old French 'vin',  
and 'aigre',
or sour wine. So alegar or ale "vinegar" does indeed come from soured  
beer or
ale.

It takes good alcohol (wine or beer) to make fermented vinegar. The  
Hit-or-miss
method of making vinegar by allowing sugar and water to ferment is  
not wise. The
fermentation of sugar to alcohol by wild yeast is followed by a  
conversion of
the alcohol to acetic acid by wild bacteria. Chances of failure or  
undesirable
tastes and aromas are high. Control the process by using great care in
cleanliness and introducing chosen yeast and bacteria to obtain  
quality vinegar
every time.

Vinegar should contain at least 5% acid as required for preserving or  
pickling.
Specialty vinegar contains acid as high as 7%. Beer containing 5.5%  
alcohol will
yield about 5% acid. Wine containing 11 to 12% alcohol must be  
diluted to 5.5 to
7% alcohol before using it to make vinegar.  ...>>>

For more on vinegar see these files in the same FOOD section:
Vinegar-NJFCC-art (18K) 10/23/01    "Vinegar: Not Just for Cleaning  
Coffeepots"
                                        by THL Mirin ben DhIarmait.
vinegar-msg       (88K)  5/18/06    Vinegar in period. Making vinegar.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****