[Sca-cooks] Mother of Vinegar

[Stefan li Rous]

< Where does one purchase Mother of Vinegar? >
<< Around me the local homebrew shop carries it.  I wouldn't be surprised 
if that's fairly normal. >>

On  a whim, since they seem to sell lots of things, I checked Amazon. Quite a number of both mother of vinegar cultures and various types of vinegar that contained the mother, there.

The actual vinegar is much cheaper than the bottles of mother, but larger, so it likely costs more to ship.

Also, I can’t tell if you just get one batch for each bottle of mother, or not. If so, that would make it a lot more expensive than buying ‘live’ vinegar.

1) Are there different types of vinegar mothers? i.e.: Is it better to use a apple cider mother if you are going to add it to apple cider?

I did see some “White Wine/Neutral Vinegar Starter”, but the description for the red wine vinegar doesn’t seem to be that specific. So does it make that big a difference? I do know that many brewers seem to want specific yeasts, and almost never bread yeasts.

I did think the instructions on the red wine vinegar description might be of use to those making vinegar at home and those who have recently had problems:

<<< USING MOTHER OF VINEGAR Directions: Mother of vinegar can be successfully used with wine or any other alcohol to produce vinegar. There are three main aspects you need to make sure of however: 1. Remove sulfites: Sulfites occur naturally in wine but are also added to prevent bacterial growth which causes vinegar to form. To remove sulfites there are two methods a. Stir the wine for about 30 minutes - can work but is not always effective b. Add small amounts of hydrogen peroxide. Get the typical 3% hydrogen peroxide sold at most drug stores and add 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) to the wine. Stir in and this should remove most sulfites. The hydrogen peroxide will not be toxic or harm the taste of the vinegar. The general formula is 1 mL of 3% hydrogen peroxide removes 10 ppm of sulfites and red wine contains on average 20-40 ppm of sulfites. 2. Make sure the alcohol percentage of the mixture you want to turn to vinegar is less than 10% v/v, preferably between 6-8% v/v. This is best achieved by diluting the wine. For example, to make vinegar from 12-14% alcohol red wine, mix 2 parts of red wine with 1 part of water and 1 part mother of vinegar. 3. Make sure the vinegar can breathe: the bacteria making vinegar need access to oxygen so make sure there are holes or an open top the vinegar can breathe through. Cover these holes or top with cheesecloth or gauze however to prevent fruit flies from getting in. Finally, the optimal temperature for vinegar growth is 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit. It will still grow fine at room temperature though. Good luck! >>>

2) I hadn’t thought of the alcohol percentage being a concern before, but it makes sense. I guess you could use that vodka or bourbon to preserve your vegetable or fruit harvest, but I seldom hear of that now, or in period. :-)

It was done with honey and I would expect honey to be more expensive than alcoholic distillations in period.

3) What do you get if you distill mead?

I’m still undecided whether to do some hunting at my local brewing shops or simply order through Amazon.

Maybe different vinegars for Yule gifts?

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