Questions about Vinegar
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2016 12:37 pm
Making a batch of vinegar from my pressed apple juice this year. Wasn't doing anything at first, but then once I put it somewhere warmer, I saw a fruit fly in there, and then it started to build up a film on top, so we'll see how it goes. The 2-4 weeks a lot of people state seems a bit optimistic. It's been in there 3 weeks already. Anyway, patience......I'll report back with my findings.
The main questions I've got are more curious than anything else.
1) So I understand that vinegar can either be made from the sugar base liquid such as malted barley mash or fruit juice, OR it can be made from an alcoholic liquid. For example, everyone seems to make ACV from apple juice, whereas Wine vinegar is made from red wine, rather than grape juice. Why is this so? Why is ACV not generally made from cider, and wine vinegar from grape juice. Surely the end result must be the same if both yeast and bacteria are present.
2) Second question relates to acidity. A typical cider ends up around 6%, so based on what I've read of an approximate conversion of ethanol to acetic acid 1:1.2, you'll end up with around 6-7% acid vinegar, so nothing really needs to be done to it. But with red wine, even if you use a low end 10% ABV wine, you'll end up with say 11-12% acid vinegar. A bit overkill for preserving. So the question is, should you dilute the wine first, or dilute the vinegar afterwards? And what would be the pros and cons.
Thanks
The main questions I've got are more curious than anything else.
1) So I understand that vinegar can either be made from the sugar base liquid such as malted barley mash or fruit juice, OR it can be made from an alcoholic liquid. For example, everyone seems to make ACV from apple juice, whereas Wine vinegar is made from red wine, rather than grape juice. Why is this so? Why is ACV not generally made from cider, and wine vinegar from grape juice. Surely the end result must be the same if both yeast and bacteria are present.
2) Second question relates to acidity. A typical cider ends up around 6%, so based on what I've read of an approximate conversion of ethanol to acetic acid 1:1.2, you'll end up with around 6-7% acid vinegar, so nothing really needs to be done to it. But with red wine, even if you use a low end 10% ABV wine, you'll end up with say 11-12% acid vinegar. A bit overkill for preserving. So the question is, should you dilute the wine first, or dilute the vinegar afterwards? And what would be the pros and cons.
Thanks