Apple Cider Vinegar

[teamnelson]

Anybody make their own apple cider vinegar, specifically mother vinegar?

Thanks,
Rob

[bilmac]

Wouldn't the cider be worth more than the vinegar?

I see that the Mormon lists of suggested stores for one year includes quite a lot of vinegar. I wondered about that until this years garden. Between a late spring, a grasshopper plague, and an early fall, I had lots of stuff that didn't grow full size or wasn't enough to do anything serious with. I ended up pickling a lot of stuff like small onions, snap peas and beans. Actually was not bad. The recipies I used called for distilled vinegar which is stronger and more consistent that apple cider. I was also surprised that it was the cheaper of the two.

[scootrd]

Anybody make their own apple cider vinegar, specifically mother vinegar?

Thanks,
Rob

I add apple cider vinegar to my goats water supply , it helps ensure the whether's don't get urinary calculi (Stones).

I made a few batches a few years ago in 5 gallon plastic buckets.  
right at the end of apple picking season I would purchase all the drops (they have high sugar content).
I had an old Wilton fruit press I would use to get the cider. (since sold). I have made it two ways , one I add yeast , the other I don't , end product is the same, just depends how long you want to wait. Once the vinegar is fermented I would use cheese cloth stolen from my wife's cheese making supplies to get rid of the mother. If you don't remove the mother your vinegar will foul. Since I used it quite frequently in the goats water I never pasteurized because I didn't need to store it very long.  But if you were planning on storing just heat it to about 150 degrees before bottling.

Around the holidays my wife would steal some of my freshly made cider vinegar , pasteurize it,  and load it with pretty herbs and spices , add wax on cap and give away as little stocking stuffer's for family and friends along with her homemade jams and cheese spreads. 

[teamnelson]

Interesting scootrd, I actually want the mother in it. There's some health benefits to taking it a couple times a day in water. I'm nowhere set up to be able to do anything just yet as apple trees are rare here on oahu, but I file away stuff people post here for the day I can do something.

Thanks!
Chaps

[Cornbelt]

Some of the pickles we made this summer had distilled vinegar; some had regular. After they had been opened for a while, the non-distilled type began to develop a vinegar mother. And any kind of fruit juice would turn to vinegar with a little of that stuff. Always wondered what watermellon vinegar would taste like, with the thousands left in the fields after harvest.
  The local orchards used to sell all the drops to the vinegar plant by the truckload; no boxes, just trucks.

[scootrd]

Interesting scootrd, I actually want the mother in it. There's some health benefits to taking it a couple times a day in water. I'm nowhere set up to be able to do anything just yet as apple trees are rare here on oahu, but I file away stuff people post here for the day I can do something.

Thanks!
Chaps

Apples may be rare but the shrimp shack I visited near North shore sure makes up for that loss.
from Pond to pot to dish in a matter of minutes.. cant get any better than that. I'd go back to Oahu in a heart beat.
I really enjoyed Ko Olina as home base and striking out to explore island and diving everyday for 3 weeks.
Give me lana kai beach for 6 months with a cold beer and I'd be a happy camper. Now if I can only hit that lottery.

How about trying some other fruit cider vinegar ? Who knows you may stumble on a new product and make a fortune.

[teamnelson]

Yeah, like a mango or lilikoi vinegar? Hah, I wonder what that would be like.

I'm over on Kauai for a couple days ... official business  Too much of a good thing!

[blind ear]

Cornbelt, I always wondered what watermellon wine would taste like for the same reasons. eddiegjr

[Cornbelt]

Watermelon wine tastes like a rotten watermelon with a little alcohol. Watermelon brandy tastes like a cucumber, but if a guy could ferment the sugar water and add watermelon juice to it after it stabilizes, it might be better. But of course, the guy I got it from might not have been nearly as experienced as he was creative. It was uinque to say the least.
  Green tomato wine is another catagory entirely!
 
  Someone dropped off a watermelon tonight. I think I'll mix it with the vinegar mother just to see what kind of monster I can create. I'll keep you posted, or else the wife can post the obituary.

[Cornbelt]

Well, all the red stuff from the watermelon went to the bottom of the jar with the vinegar mother. Still smells like pickle juice, but it has a weird watermellon flavor. No telling what a guy might get used to in a pinch, but cider vinegar is my choice. Watermellons, pumpkins and such could be used to produce either vinegar or alcohol. Maybe the alcohol would be more practical since it can be used for something besides drinking. Didn't really care for the watermelon vinegar, but it worked.

[steg]

As long as the cider is pure stuff, no additives, after it turns hard a little later on the mother will start forming. Make sure that you use a wide mouth type of container to make it easier to get the mother out, that was my first mistake, I used a gallon jug, but I had no idea that the mother was going to form in it, one would form and get to around 3/8ths of an inch thick, that one would drop to the bottom and another would form. Their were five of the layers in the jug before I drained and saved the vinegar, scored around the jug with a glass cutter and changed containers. The Mothers themselves look like a soft jelly, but their almost like a very soft silicone in consistency, and their pretty tough................steg