Apple Cider Vinegar

I've decided it would be fun to start making my own vinegar.  It is a fairly simple and straight forward process where an alcoholic beverage has it's alcohol broken down into Acetic acid when exposed to oxygen.  It can be made from any moderately strong alcoholic beverage.  If this first attempt goes well I would plan to try to make some malt and beer vinegar.  My ultimate desire would be to try to make something like a Balsamic Vinegar.

This YouTube video outlined what seems like a very smart method of making a vinegar.  It involves taking the Acetic Acid culture from an unfiltered/unpasteurized commercial Apple Cider vinegar as the basis for your product.  This process builds up the culture which can be used again and again.  I'm going to use Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar for this.

For the cider I'll use my Hard Apple Cider Take II which I made in late 2018.  It  is 6.3% ABV and was slightly back sweetened.  I think it will work pretty well for this.  It may take a month or two to finish up.  I'll provide status along the way.

Recipe Details:

• 12 oz of Hard Apple Cider
• 1 tbs of Organic Vinegar

Brewing Notes:

• 7/8/20:
• Mixed up the cider in a 1 pint mason jar
• Put a cotton rag over top which I secured with the jar ring.  This will allow for oxygen exposure but protect it from bugs

• Left it in the kitchen to age and develop
• 7/17/20 - The cider has started to form a bit of pellicle.  Still smells like cider though

• 7/25/20 - The pellicle is getting pretty thick now.  Starting to develop a bit of vinegar aroma but mostly smells  like cider still

• 8/7/20 - Had a taste.  It has a pretty firm bit of acidity maybe a bit less potent than the Bragg version.  It still has a nice bit of apple flavor that cuts through and the slight sweetness of the cider (which I backsweetened and pasteurized) comes through quite a bit.  After tasting the mother culture layer fell and it's started to form a new layer.  I noticed the volume had dropped by a couple oz over the last few weeks (it's been very hot).  Making this has given me some confidence.  I'm going to try some malt vinegar soon.

• 9/19/20 - Ready about my next vinegar experiment - Malt Vinegar