Q&A for How to Make Your Own Vinegar

It is all explained above. You need unpasteurized and unfiltered vinegar (store-bought or otherwise) to make a 'mother.' You can sometimes even find a bottle of unfiltered and unpasteurized vinegar (at the store) with a 'mother' in it.

Squeeze the sugarcane for juice. Put the juice in a container with a hole so carbon dioxide can escape and add yeast to the juice. Leave the mixture in a warm place with not too much movement. Taste the liquid periodically, once every few days. It should taste alcoholic. Keep fermenting until it no longer tastes sweet, just alcoholic. Then follow the above steps to make vinegar.

Extract matured sugarcane juice without any additives and then strain it through a cheesecloth in enameled earthen pot. Now leave it for about 30 days untouched. Post that, if the aroma is somewhat like vinegar, leave it for another 30 days. Then strain through a cheesecloth again to remove the mother, then add black/brown chickpeas for flavor and smoothness. Store for a couple of days, then strain and bottle for preservation. Your vinegar is ready!

All Plastics are proven to leach estrogenic chemicals into items made and stored within them. Unless the item made of plastic is specifically made for food production, I would not recommend using it at all. However, there are some Plastics that are used specifically for this purpose.

Conceivably you could use a wood barrel, but don't plan on using it for anything other than vinegar afterwards. Bacteria will seep into the wood slats and any other product put in the cask after that (i.e wine, beer, whisky) will become contaminated with it. Storing filtered vinegar in a cask previously used to age other beverages could allow the vinegar pick up the flavor of the beverage from the wood, giving the vinegar a pleasant nuance. If you do choose to use a cask do not seal the bung tightly as there will be fermenting vapors escaping from the vinegar. Also, the larger the cask the longer the aging required to extract flavor from the wood.

You need to slowly freeze it down to about 0 F. The water will freeze but the acetic acid will stay in the solution. Remove the ice and the liquid will be strongly acidic and should be in your target % range.

Most grocery stores will carry natural apple cider vinegar that is raw. It will say "the mother" on the label.

I'd suggest a wine or beer yeast as baker's yeast will likely give you some "off" flavors. You most likely want to ferment toward the bottom of the yeast's temperature range. A lager yeast will give off the least amount of flavors. Any beer (lager or ale) yeast will likely need some yeast food added in.

Distill vinegar by using a still, a device that heats the vinegar to steam, then collects and re-constitutes the vapor by cooling it down.

Vinegar, especially apple cider vinegar, is good for your health. There are plenty of articles on its health benefits.

Adjust the amount of fermenting time, add more or less water to adjust the alcohol level, and try different combinations of wines, other alcohols, and other additions (like fruit, honey, or maple syrup).

Discard the vinegar if it has mold in it. If you only see a clear gelatinous blob, however, that is the "mother" and it can be removed and used to make more vinegar.

If you see a gelatinous "mother" floating on the surface, simply follow the instructions for fermenting and tasting in the article. Soon enough, you'll have champagne vinegar!

Any wine without sulfites can be used to make vinegar. Use water as needed to dilute the wine and reduce the ABV and/or adjust the finished flavor of the vinegar.

1/2 pound of sugar and 1/2 tsp yeast in a liter should yield approximately 10% ABV. Add 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient for faster fermentation.

You can use a clarification method, in the same manner as a professional kitchen does when they make a consommé. in this particular case, don't reheat your wine much at all, otherwise the alcohol will disappear.

Yes, vinegar is acetic acid, a molecule that contains only one carbon and which is hydrophilic (mixes well with water). You need a lot more carbons involved before it becomes hydrophobic.