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What Is Vinegar?
The French word
vinaigre means “sour wine.” In
Wild Fermentation,
author and fermentation expert Sandor Katz writes that his experience
with vinegar-making began as winemaking gone awry. “Vinegar is an
excellent consolation for your winemaking failure,” he writes. (To avoid
getting vinegar instead of wine, you should store your vinegar-making
projects far away from your homebrew batches.)
If a liquid has fermentable sugars or alcohol in it, the liquid can
be turned into vinegar. Wine makes wine vinegar, cider makes cider
vinegar and beer makes malt vinegar. Your kitchen is well-stocked if you
have wine, cider, and possibly malt and sherry vinegars.
When alcohol is exposed to oxygen, it is transformed by aerobic
(oxygen-loving) acetobacter bacteria into acetic acid, more commonly
known as vinegar. The ubiquitous acetobacter bacteria in the air find
the alcohol in loosely covered wine, cider or beer and go to work. Katz
says the simplest method — albeit sometimes faulty — to make both
alcohol and vinegar is to let unpasteurized apple cider sit for a week
until it becomes alcoholic, and then let it sit for another couple of
weeks until it becomes vinegar.
To ensure your fermentation creates flavorful vinegar, however, use a
“mother of vinegar.” The mother is a gelatinous mass of vinegar-making
organisms that forms naturally in vinegar. You can order a starter of
live vinegar containing particles that will clump together and form a
mother during fermentation. Add the starter (or mother) to a new batch
of alcohol — wine, cider or beer — and leave it there until the vinegar
tastes right to you, at which point you may remove the mother and use it
for a new batch.
Step-by-Step Process
1.
Gather your vessel. Because acetobacter bacteria
need oxygen to work, a wide-mouth crock, glass jar, food-grade plastic
bucket, bowl, wooden cask or other non-metal container is best (vinegar
corrodes metal). Do not fill the container more than about half-full to
maximize the surface area ratio.
2.
Gather your starter. You can get a mother of
vinegar from a friend who makes vinegar. Or, order a starter from wine
and beer supply shops or online from
Adventures in Home Brewing,
Leeners,
Cultures Alive, or
Etsy.
3.
Gather your ingredients. To make wine vinegar,
you want 1 part starter (or mother), 1 part unchlorinated water and 2
parts alcoholic beverage. Use unsulfited organic alcohols if possible,
because sulfites kill acetobacter bacteria. If your wine contains
sulfites, let the mixture sit for a half-hour. (If your water is
chlorinated, boil it first and let it cool, or let the water sit out on
the counter overnight.) For cider and beer vinegars, omit the water. Add
alcohol and water, if using, to your vessel. Stir. Pour in the starter
(or gently add the mother).
4.
Cover the top. Place cloth or a few layers of cheesecloth over the container and secure with a rubber band.
5.
Store the vessel. Set the vinegar pot where the
temperature stays between 65 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep the
container out of sunlight and drafts.
6.
Monitor the vinegar. Over time, the mother on top
of the vinegar will become thicker. It may develop a brownish cast,
which is fine. If you see mold or smell a paint-thinner aroma, toss the
batch. (This is rare.)
7.
Taste the vinegar. After a couple of weeks,
sample a spoonful of the vinegar. Simply remove or lift the mother out
of the way. It’s OK if the mother sinks. If the liquid tastes like
vinegar, it’s ready. You may want to leave it to ferment longer for a
stronger flavor. In warm temperatures, vinegar may be finished in two
weeks. In cold temperatures, it may take a month or more — it’s OK to
let it go longer. Vinegar is stable for a long time, though it will
begin to lose its potency in time.
8.
Draw off your finished vinegar. Pour the liquid
through a strainer. Decant almost all of it to a clean, glass jar with a
narrow neck and a top with a tight-fitting lid or new cork to reduce
further oxidation. The vinegar will continue to age and mellow in the
bottle.
9.
Save the mother. Put the mother back into the
fermenting vessel and pour remaining vinegar over it. This is the mother
of vinegar for your next batch. You can either start a new batch now or
let your mother sit at room temperature for up to a month until you’re
ready to use it again.
If you plan to share the mother, now is the time to split it.
10.
Age the vinegar. Store the vinegar at 50 to 60
degrees for six months to mellow and let particles settle. The vinegar
will improve for up to two years, then slowly decline. Use the vinegar
as is, dilute it to your taste, or infuse it with herbs or other
flavors.
Source 2:
Vinegar is an alcoholic liquid that has been allowed to sour. It is
primarily used to flavor and preserve foods and as an ingredient in salad
dressings and marinades. Vinegar is also used as a cleaning agent. The
word is from the French
vin
(wine) and
aigre
(sour).
History
The use of vinegar to flavor food is centuries old. It has also been used
as a medicine, a corrosive agent, and as a preservative. In the Middle
Ages, alchemists poured vinegar onto lead in order to create lead acetate.
Called "sugar of lead," it was added to sour cider until it
became clear that ingesting the sweetened cider proved deadly.
By the
Renaissance era, vinegar-making was a lucrative business in France.
Flavored with pepper, clovers, roses, fennel, and raspberries, the country
was producing close to 150 scented and flavored vinegars. Production of
vinegar was also burgeoning in Great Britain. It became so profitable that
a 1673 Act of Parliament established a tax on so-called vinegar-beer. In
the early days of the United States, the production of cider vinegar was a
cornerstone of farm and domestic economy, bringing three times the price
of traditional hard cider.
The transformation of wine or fruit juice to vinegar is a chemical process
in which ethyl alcohol undergoes partial oxidation that results in the
formation of acetaldehyde. In the third stage, the acetaldehyde is
converted into acetic acid. The chemical reaction is as follows: CH
3
CH
2
OH=2HCH
3
CHO=CH
3
COOH.
Historically, several processes have been employed to make vinegar. In the
slow, or natural, process, vats of cider are allowed to sit open at room
temperature. During a period of several months, the fruit juices ferment
into alcohol and then oxidize into acetic acid.
The French Orleans process is also called the continuous method. Fruit
juice is periodically added to small batches of vinegar and stored in
wooden barrels. As the fresh juice sours, it is skimmed off the top.
Both the slow and continuous methods require several months to produce
vinegar. In the modern commercial production of vinegar, the generator
method and the submerged fermentation method are employed. These methods
are based on the goal of infusing as much oxygen as possible into the
alcohol product.
Raw Materials
Vinegar is made from a variety of diluted alcohol products, the most
common being wine, beer, and rice.
Balsamic vinegar is made from the
Trebbiano and
Lambrusco grapes of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.
Some
distilled vinegars are made from wood products such as beech.
Acetobacters are microscopic bacteria that live on oxygen bubbles. Whereas
the fermentation of grapes or hops to make wine or beer occurs in the
absence of oxygen, the process of making vinegars relies on its presence.
In the natural processes, the acetobacters are allowed to grow over time.
In the vinegar factory, this process is induced by feeding acetozym
nutrients into the tanks of alcohol.
Because acetobacter bacteria
need oxygen to work, a wide-mouth crock, glass jar, food-grade plastic
bucket, bowl, wooden cask or other non-metal container is best (vinegar
corrodes metal). Do not fill the container more than about half-full to
maximize the surface area ratio.
Mother of vinegar is the gooey film that appears on the surface of the
alcohol product
as it is converted to vinegar. It is a natural
carbohydrate called
cellulose. This film holds the highest concentration of acetobacters. It
is skimmed off the top and added to subsequent batches of alcohol to speed
the formation of vinegar. Acetozym nutrients are manmade mother of vinegar
in a powdered form.
Herbs and fruits are often used to flavor vinegar. Commonly used herbs
include tarragon, garlic, and basil. Popular fruits include raspberries,
cherries, and lemons.
Design
The design step of making vinegar is essentially a recipe. Depending on
the type of vinegar to be bottled at the production plant—wine
vinegar, cider vinegar, or distilled vinegar—food scientists in the
test kitchens and laboratories create recipes for the various vinegars.
Specifications include the amount of mother of vinegar and/or acetozym
nutrients added per gallon of alcohol product. For flavored vinegars,
ingredients such as herbs and fruits are macerated in vinegar for varying
periods to determine the best taste results.
The Manufacturing
Process
The Orleans method
-
Wooden barrels are laid on their sides. Bungholes are drilled into the
top side and plugged with stoppers. Holes are also drilled into the ends
of the barrels.
-
The alcohol is poured into the barrel via long-necked funnels inserted
into the bungholes. Mother of vinegar is added at this point. The barrel
is filled to a level just below the holes on the ends. Netting or
screens are placed over the holes to prevent insects from getting into
the barrels.
-
The filled barrels are allowed to sit for several months. The room
temperature is kept at approximately 85°F (29°C). Samples are
taken periodically by inserting a spigot into the side holes and drawing
liquid off. When the alcohol has converted to vinegar, it is drawn off
through the spigot. About 15% of the liquid is left in the barrel to
blend with the next batch.
The submerged fermentation
method
-
The submerged fermentation method is commonly used in the production of
wine vinegars. Production plants are filled with large stainless steel
tanks called acetators. The acetators are fitted with centrifugal pumps
in the bottom that pump air bubbles into the tank in much the same way
that an aquarium pump does.
-
As the pump stirs the alcohol, acetozym nutrients are piped into the
tank. The nutrients spur the growth of acetobacters on the oxygen
bubbles. A heater in the tank keeps the temperature between 80 and
100°F (26-38°C).
-
Within a matter of hours, the alcohol product has been converted into
vinegar. The vinegar is piped from the acetators to a plate-and-frame
filtering machine. The stainless steel plates press the alcohol through
paper filters to remove any sediment, usually about 3% of the total
product. The sediment is flushed into a drain while the filtered vinegar
moves to the dilution station.
The generator method
-
Distilled and industrial vinegars are often produced via the generator
method. Tall oak vats are filled with vinegar-moistened beechwood
shavings, charcoal, or grape pulp. The alcohol product is poured into
the top of the vat and slowly drips down through the fillings.
-
Oxygen is allowed into the vats in two ways. One is through bungholes
that have been punched into the sides of the vats. The second is through
the perforated bottoms of the vats. An air compressor blows air through
the holes.
-
When the alcohol product reaches the bottom of the vat, usually within
in a span of several days to several weeks, it has converted to vinegar.
It is poured off from the bottom of the vat into storage tanks. The
vinegar produced in this method has a very high acetic acid content,
often as high as 14%, and must be diluted with unchlorinated water to bring its acetic
acid content to a range of
5-6%.
- To produce distilled vinegar, the diluted liquid is poured into a boiler
and
brought to its boiling point. A vapor rises from the liquid and is
collected in a condenser. It then cools and becomes liquid again. This
liquid is then bottled as distilled vinegar.
Bascsamic vinegar
-
The production of balsamic vinegar most closely resembles the production
of fine wine. In order to bear the name balsamic, the vinegar must be
made from the juices of the Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes. The juice is
blended and boiled over a fire. It is then poured into barrels of oak,
chestnut, cherry, mulberry, and ash.
-
The juice is allowed to age, ferment, and condense for five years. At
the beginning of each year, the aging liquid is mixed with younger
vinegars and placed in a series of smaller barrels. The finished product
absorbs aroma from the oak and color from the chestnut.
Quality Control
The growing of acetobacters, the bacteria that creates vinegar, requires
vigilance. In the Orleans Method, bungholes must be checked routinely to
ensure that insects have not penetrated the netting. In the generator
method, great care is taken to keep the temperature inside the tanks in
the 80-100°F range (26-38°C). Workers routinely check the
thermostats on the tanks. Because a loss of electricity could kill the
acetobacters within seconds, many vinegar plants have backup systems to
produce electrical power in the event of a blackout.
Byproducts/Waste
Vinegar production results in very little by-products or waste. In fact,
the alcohol product is often the by-product of other processes such as
winemaking and baker's yeast.
Some sediment will result from the submerged fermentation method. This
sediment is
biodegradable and can be flushed down a drain for disposal.
The Future
By the end of the
twentieth century, grocery stores in the United States
were posting $200 million in vinegar sales. White distilled vinegar
garners the largest percentage of the market, followed in order by cider,
red wine, balsamic, and rice. Balsamic vinegar is the fastest growing
type. In addition to its continued popularity as a condiment, vinegar is
also widely used as a cleaning agent.
Where to Learn More
Books
Lang, Jenifer Harvey, ed.
Larousse Gastronomique.
New York: Crown, 1984.
Proulx, Annie, and Lew Nichols.
Cider: Making, Using and Enjoying Sweet and Hard Cider.
Pownat, VT: Storey Communications, 1997.
Watson, Ben.
Cider Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own.
Woodstock, Vermont: Countryman Press, 1999.
Other
Alcoholic Drinks of the Middle Ages: Vinegar.
December 2001. <
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1265/cvinegar.html
>.
Sonomna Vinegar Works Web Page.
December 2001. <
http://www.sonomavinegar.com
>.
Mary
McNulty
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