Anyone made their own ACV?

[Just Ducky10]

Hi, just wanted to share. The Crab Apple Cider Vinegar from scratch was a success !!!

I used a food grade 5 gallon bucket (that was previously used for commercial concentrated fruit juice) and filled it 2/3 of the way with tiny yellow crab apples that are about the size of a quarter that I cut in half. I just barely covered them with water and added 1/8 cup of Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother, then I covered the bucket with a rag T-shirt, tied it on with baleing twine, and let it set outside under the overhang. It was only 1 week when I smelled alcohol and 3 more weeks when the vinegar taste was STRONG. I drained the vinegar from the crab apples (1 1/2 gallons of vinegar) and then covered the same crab apples with water again. The second time turned out just as good as the first. (Only 1 gallon this time) The Crab apples still look okay so I'm trying one more time just to see.

The Crab Apple Cider Vinegar actually turned out a stronger vinegar than the regular Apple Scrap Cider Vinegar that I did at the same time, plus it took a shorter amount of time. I'll definitely be doing this again next year.


How'd everybody else's turn out?


Brenna

 

[Trefoil]

Refrigeration will either slow the process way down or stop it completely.

 

[Toddrick]

Mine turned out good. The smell of alcohol got intense and the apples started turning brown, so I filtered them out and tossed them. (Note that they never sank really, well maybe one or two slices did). Then I added some ACV with mother and stuck the container in the closet for a month. Immediately it developed a scum on the top (mother) and the smell of alcohol was completely gone in a couple weeks. It smelled very, very strong of vinegar after a month, so I simply put the lid on it to save it for spring to use in the chicken water.

 

[mythreesons]

I made my own ACV by just using apple peels,cores, sugar & water then letting it ferment for weeks.

I found the recipe by watching backtothebasics on youtube.

Hope this helps.

 

[Toddrick]

I made my own ACV by just using apple peels,cores, sugar & water then letting it ferment for weeks.

I found the recipe by watching backtothebasics on youtube.

Hope this helps.

It sounds like you made hard cider, not ACV. Unless you added mother (or waited for months for that particular yeast to fall out of the air randomly), then the alcohol could not be converted to vinegar. That's my understanding anyways.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

It sounds like you made hard cider, not ACV. Unless you added mother (or waited for months for that particular yeast to fall out of the air randomly), then the alcohol could not be converted to vinegar. That's my understanding anyways.

To make alcohol, it must be cut off from the air with an airlock. If it's open to air, it will become vinegar.

 

[Toddrick]

To make alcohol, it must be cut off from the air with an airlock. If it's open to air, it will become vinegar.

The only way the alcohol can be converted to vinegar is from a a particular yeast to fall into the batch through the cheese cloth lid, and create the "mother". But it could take many months for this to happen by chance, so sealing the lid isn't really necessary in the short term. Most people just add mother from existing ACV for instant conversion of alcohol to vinegar. But yea, once you are happy with the alcohol content you could put a regular lid on it and keep hard cider.

I never knew it was so easy to make alcoholic beverages. I don't understand why moonshiners didn't just put some fruit in water!