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The
Vinegar Ladies Explanation on:
How to Make Good Wine Vinegar
Linda Baldwin and Kim Adams
Thanks
to Kim who was kind enough to send me (by USPS even!) articles
on vinegar making a year or two ago. It was such fun getting to
know her last month at MoCool....we were the Vinegar Ladies. Anyhow,
since I started reading stuff on vinegar, I swear no two articles
say the same thing. What I've learned mostly is that there's nothing
very scientific (or artistic) about making vinegar. Mainly, don't
starve your mother, some wine every couple weeks, amount isn't
too important, but the bigger the batch, the more I'll add. Or
little remnants of leftovers each night. Use some common sense....if
you double the volume each time you feed her, she'll never have
time to eat it all and poot out enough acid proportionallay. Give
it air but keep the bugs out, cheesecloth is good, I use an old
linen napkin. Keep it at room temp, not in the fridge. Dark is
probably good for a good rich color of end product.
Now
I'll try to hit on the questions I had at the beginning that I
never got definitive answers for along with the best I can do
with answers from experience:
1.
How long does it take to get vinegar?
Damfino. If you get mother from a shop or a friend along with
a little vinegar, it'll smell like vinegar from the beginning.
If you add an equal amount or more of wine, it won't be acid enough.
Just keep tasting it every couple weeks. More at the end on starting
your own mother from scratch.
2.
What do you do when you're ready to use it?
Early on, when you don't have much, like just a quart or two,
siphon out just what you want to use at the time. If you're concerned
about continuous use, just feed small amounts daily so the acid
won't drop too quickly and it'll be able to keep up. At this stage,
you can't afford to give any away as gifts. Then there'll come
the day when you've opened a bottle that is just too simple to
hold your interest but it's really fruity. Dump the whole thing
in and do without vinegar for a couple weeks, especially if this
doubled your volume. Be patient. Now, after you've built yourself
a gallon or two that's ready to go, pour it all through a sieve,
not for filtering but to separate the mother, there will be several.
Filter a quart or so of the vinegar and as Kim said, filter through
coffee filters, put it in a jar with a lid so it doesn't get air.
There may be some teeny bits of mother that get through and you
don't want mother to start growing again in what you've bottled.
Dump the remainder of the vinegar back in the crock or barrel
along with a big handful or two of the softest of the mother (looks
just like afterbirth). I think that's the youngest and hungriest.
(grin) If you have enough to share, give a half cup mother with
equal vinegar to a friend.
3.
When is the acid high enough?
First taste it, but don't suck in any air as you're sucking in
vinegar because you'll cough your head off from the acid. You'll
be impatient to make a vinaigrette, so go ahead, but add about
1/4 of your normal proportion of oil at first and taste again,
continuing to add oil till it suits your taste.
4.
Why do some people say you have to add an equal part water with
the wine feeding?
Two reasons, neither of which suit me so I don't add any water
with feedings. First, wine has so much alcohol that the mother
produces too high acidity. True, the acid can get high, but I'd
rather cut the final product with water or wine (better) if necessary....I've
never done that though, just add extra oil to a vinaigrette. Second,
someone told me that straight wine will eventually kill the mother.
Dunno, never happened here.
5.
Should you ever empty the barrel and start over?
I wouldn't do that because my vinegar has improved noticebly in
flavor over the couple years I've been doing it. I leave at least
half the working vinegar in the barrel. You can remove some vinegar
and mother and start a new batch, but you'll end up with vessels
of vinegar all over the house.
6.
What kind of wine is best for feeding?
I think the fruitiest leaves the vinegar with the best flavor.
IMO young wine is usually better than old. NEVER add white wine.
NEVER add even a drop of corked vinegar, I swear I think the corkiness
grows.
7.
What do I do if I've had a tasting or a party and there's way
too much wine to dump in at once?
Consolidate the wine into bottles, recork them, and keep in the
fridge. If it isn't going to stay for months, the cellar's OK
too. Non geek friendly party wines are especially good in vinegar,
so don't waste it.
8.
Is white wine vinegar done the same way?
Yes, but I was unsuccessful in making my own mother. Bob Henrick
from KY sent me some of his mother. It took months for the mother
to reproduce herself. Fortunately he told me it was much slower
so I didn't give up. Next to this golden goodie, store bought
white vinegar tastes like water.
9.
How do I make my own mother?
Y'know how San Francisco sourdough is better (more sour) than
most others? Well, it's the particular strain of beasties in the
Bay Area air that can take the credit. I have my own personal
theory here. Even if you get real SF starter, after a while of
using and feeding it in some other state, you'll have your own
unique sourdough because the new beasties aren't the same as the
SF ones. Same with vinegar I think. I was told (after I got mine
started) to start with a wine low in sulfites because sulfites
will inhibit or prevent growth. I have no idea what I started
with. I filled a mayo jar half full of red wine and waited and
waited...Then there was something like an oil slick that formed
on the top and it started to smell sort of like varnish. This
must have happened several weeks to a month later. This was encouraging,
but shortly thereafter light gray-blue-green mold-looking stuff
formed on the top. I threw it out and started over. Same thing
happened the next time and I just skimmed out the "mold". Less
grew this time, and a couple more skimmings and it was all gone
never to return. I wish I could remember how long it took, but
it really doesn't matter. Maybe a couple months before the mother
started forming. Kim's picture is excellent.
10.
Would aging in an oak barrel be beneficial and how big a barrel
should I get?
I think oak gives vinegar a depth and weight that glass or ceramic
can't. The barrels are expensive, but the price/volume drops considerably
as you get larger barrels. I got a 1 and a 3 gallon barrel, outgrew
the 1 gallon in no time. I do the whole process in a barrel, but
you could just as easily wait till the vinegar's done and age
it in the barrel after filtering. Of course then you'd have to
wait, and I don't know how long. I now use my 1 gal barrel for
white vinegar. Oh, I wouldn't bother having a spout put on, it
clogs with mother most of the time so it's useless for drawing
out vinegar. I think 3 gal for red vinegar is just right if you
want to give some away and also have vinegar ready all the time.
Generally the feedings are so small in proportion to the amount
of existing vinegar that the acid level doesn't drop too much
and it'll come back up pretty quickly.
Copyright
© Linda Baldwin and Kim Adams, September,
1999
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