Vinegar Making Q & A

hello friends Heidi here from rain country god is good all the time and today I'm going to be answering some questions I get frequently about vinegar so what I have going on here is I have several different vinegars some that I need to filter out today some that I filtered out not too long ago some of their bottle let me start off with the first question that I get quite a bit and people talk about they kind of freak out I understand no I'm not I'm not not making fun of you but they'll come in say help I'm getting black mold something black growing on top of my vinegar and I'm seeing that a lot that question come in a lot on the raisin vinegar in particular which is an older video and I say that because even though I've been making vinegar for quite a few years even since I started my youtube channel I have since changed the way that I make my vinegar and so if you want to know how I'm doing it now I'll go ahead and link to my most recent vinegar making video right up here so you can see how I do it I go into more detail and all that but I do make it differently now typically when I made raisin vinegar I've never had problems with the fruit floating to the top like I do with almost all my other fruit vinegars they always they would float up and down but they wouldn't float to the top and stay up there now when that happens and your fruit floats to the top and stays there and you're not stirring it then eventually it will develop molt this is not anything to be afraid of the mold will start off as white and then in green and then as it ages and kind of dies off it'll turn black on top what that means is the vinegar is actually killing the mold it's not black mold like you worry about as far as you know growing in your house and people are you know it can be deadly or make you very sick or whatever it's not the same kind of mold it's very different it's only black because it's dead and dried and so it's not to be concerned so you have a couple options if you did it the way I always do it and just let it sit and not stir it just let it sit for 30 days and 130 days I strained it out what I typically would do was lift all the stuff off the top if it was moldy which sometimes it wasn't it just would depend it just depends on how much of the fruit of herbs and stuff sits up on top of the water you have to realize that if it's truly vinegar anything below that surface is going to be killed there's not going to be any mold under there because the vinegar will naturally kill all the mold so you can just gently lift that off there and and toss it and even if you get a little bit of mold that falls into the vinegar it's still gonna get killed by the vinegar but if that still concerns you and you're still a little bit squeamish about that then what I recommend is going the next step when you start making your vinegar for the first two weeks at least I recommend you stir it every single day and that will do a couple of things and I I go over that some of my other videos but you stir it it's gonna prevent the mold from building on top because you just keep stirring it every day and getting that work down in there what's happening is as the vinegar as the sugar in the water is is turning into alcohol it's wanting bubbles and the bubbles are filling up the fruit and all that stuff and it's pushing it to the top so basically what you have to do is keep working those bubbles out of that and then working the fruit back down in there but the other good thing about stirring one of the other good things is that it helps to aerate the vinegar what turns sugar water and fruit water into vinegar is the constant aeration it needs to be exposed to oxygen that's why you don't use any kind of pickling top or airlock or anything like that that's what you do if you want to turn it to wine but wine when it's been exposed to oxygen is going to turn to vinegar so that's the whole process of vinegar going from from sugar to alcohol to vinner it that's that's the process so that is what's happening in the bubbling phase it is it is turning into wine at that point and then the third reason why it's a good idea to stir every day and some people have had issues with it it's that as those air bubbles keep pushing that fruit and those herbs up to the top of the jar it's going to start pushing the liquid up and out too and you'll have an overflow and so some people have just put plates under theirs however if you're stirring it daily that's not going to happen so though the stir method requires a little more extra time each day because you and attentiveness I'm thinking to get in there and stir it at least once a day twice as good too but once it's once is usually plenty that it's going to keep all that from happening you won't have to worry with overflow you won't have to worry about mold and it does seem to help speed up the process a little bit more the more sugar you use is going to slow down the process but it's also going to give you a stronger result at the end I'm to the point now that whenever I'm using an herb based vinegar like this one is mostly herb base it has lemons in it then I I put a half cup of sugar at least and I'm a go check it I may add more sugar to it I don't do that all the time now I I was talking about that in that video that I linked to up there but I really don't haven't been doing that so much in these last batches now summertime is when I have most of my vinegar going and I didn't think I was going to want to do the stir method but since I prefer it I'm finding I like it for so many reasons I just set up a table in my big work room in there and that's where I was doing all my vinegars over the summer now that we're getting into we're in the fall we're getting to the time of year that I may have one or two vinegars going at a time those will probably do mostly on top of my frigerator or starting here on the counter for the first two weeks so I remember to stir it daily I have to have these things in sight I can't just write it down either I have to have these things visual for me so that I can look out and go yep that's right I need to stir it so you have to find what works for you as far as that however leaving your vinegar to just sit and form you will have to possibly face mold and get less you use weights there's some very expensive weights you can use that will keep your your stuff under the liquid so it doesn't mold you can use find a good rock a flat rock somebody mentioned that in another video I've done that before but I have not found one good method that always kept kept it underneath sometimes you're still going to have overflow you're still going to have those bubbles pushing it up so you know for me that little extra step of stirring every day just saved a lot of time and other things time and cleanup of over spilled vinegar time and having to worry about the mold and getting it off or not that I worried about it that much but at any rate you don't have to worry about the mold so coming back to that it's really not a concern it's not going to hurt you it just depends on how squeamish you are about it if you don't want to deal with it do the stir method use weights but they're not they're not always I don't care what weight they're they're not always foolproof now the white layer a lot of times you'll see a white layer especially a gelatinous layer now that is totally normal and should be expected none of these these are all to the point that they're vinegar none of these have that same white layer that I'm thinking of that I wanted to show you but they do have a white layer but it's not the same thing if you see this kind of really thin white layer that's kind of it might even look a little bit splotchy that is your cam yeast it may look very dry on top kind of have almost a beige color really not so much pure white and that is again totally normal I mean this is based off of the geese ferment and so that's what's happening and you'll probably see that develop sometimes at the top of your vinegars after you've already put them in storage and that's totally normal nothing to be concerned about and the same applies to this white layer that you see right here that is actually a mother forming but all of these here to some extent have a mother in them this one is no longer floating at the very top it's actually down here right on top of the fruit this is the peach vinegar you would have saw me making in my uses for peaches I'll go ahead and link to that video up here and so here's the other thing I found about using the stirrer method is I'm more likely developed to develop a mother during the vinegar making process rather than having it developed after I've already filtered out in jarda and so that's why after two weeks typically you don't have to worry about stirring it for one the bubbliness stopped and also as the mother forms it just makes this nice little protective layer that keeps all the fruit and stuff from floating to the top and developing mold so it's it's really it's just a really good method to use the stir method so that mother that's your Scobie that is something that you do not need to be concerned about it's healthy it should be expected you can save it some people mention how they save theirs and reuse them too it's not necessarily it's not needed to get your vinegar started you don't need it but you can put it in your next batch right on the top to help prevent your fruits and stuff from floating to the top but if you're going to use a stir method well you don't need it anyway and it's just going to get in the way if you do that and eventually the vinegar you're making with the stir method is going to form but these ones that I haven't strained out have a mother and then this actually has to because it has one real thin one starting to form at the top and then there's another one right in here now another question I get asked now on is do I need sugar to make vinegar can I use stevia no you cannot use stevia in replacement of sugar when it comes to vinegar making because yes you need sugar of some sort whether it be just pure fruit that you're using or honey or organic cane sugar like I'd like to use you have to have sugar in order to make vinegar I know people ask this question a lot because they're trying to stay away from sugar completely but no matter how sugar avoidant you feel you need to be it does have its place in our health and in our diet it's just not overloading on it in its refined form is the big deal but as far as I mean if you're still eating fruit you're still getting sugar and vinegar once it is done should not have any sugar left in because the sugar is what gets converted into vinegar so you have to have that but it's no longer sugar at that point it's a vinegar it's something far more healthy for you in that way so if you're concerned about sugar because you're trying to stay away from it dietary wise you shouldn't be concerned about it in that way it's not going to hurt you it's not gonna raise your glycemic level because it's now no longer sugar once it's become vinegar but yes it isn't necessary and stevia does not have sugar in it it's naturally sweet but there's no sugar in it so it cannot be used as a replacement for fermenting of any kind you can ferment stevia but the shoe there's enough sugar in it to ferment I mean there may be small amounts but not like you would having fruit or Cayden sugar honey so when you're talking vinegar stevia is not going to be a good replacement if you're wanting to make wine same thing you need to have sugar to make wine it's it wine and vinegar or based off the same type of ferment okay now another question I get a lot is when people they filter out their their vinegar they put it in a bottle and then there they go to open it some time later and it's it explodes or it's still fizzy well what happened there is that you didn't let the process finish maybe you just stuck to their to the standard 30 days and thought okay it's done well it wasn't done it needed to continue to ferment longer but it doesn't mean you have to start the process all over again you can still use that it is still good it's just somewhere in between the vinegar and wine stage so what I recommend instead of putting it back a new jar and letting it finish fermenting or finish turning into vinegar just use it for saute using the unfinished vinegar where it sets somewhere in that in-between process is really great for for sauteing and for using as a marinade there's a lot of things that you can do with that so it's totally up to you yes you can put it back in a jar and maybe even add some more sugar and let it ferment again give it at least a good two weeks you just have to really keep an eye on it if it's bubbling it's not completely done it may be mostly vinegar it may taste like vinegar a smell like vinegar but if it's still bubbly then that means the yeast and the bacteria is all still feeding off the sugar and converting it that's what's happening there but it is still good don't throw it out okay and then another question I get frequently is how do I use all of my vinegars as you can see here this one here this is a floral vinegar it's made with rose petals and lavender and pansies calendula I have another one here that is just rhubarb and calendula really nice color and then I'll have like this here is my raisin vinegar from last year this is using the no stirrer method and it's still really good though not near as strong and acidic as the vinegars I've been making lately but the good thing about that is the raisin is also my favorite for sauteing so I don't mind if it's not really strong really acidic now I cover I do cover in another video all the ways I think I covered all the ways I use my vinegars because I use them for many different things I'll go ahead and link to that video right up here so you can go watch that but just to to mention a few things I use it for cleaning I use it for cooking I use it for baking as I said I go into more details on how I do that in that video but one of the things I like to do is put it in this bottle right here I have several of these now and yes these have been really good bottles for me I could get them on the subscribe and say program on Amazon and save a little bit more on I'm doing it that way and you get three at a time and so I have several of these filled with vinegar one in my bathroom back here one in a kitchen so typically what I do when I'm straining out the vinegar as I use one of these mesh trainers like this over an eighth cup measuring cup or batter bowl is it's also known and I will link to those items below where you can find like the three piece set of this it's really great for that and I just I'll just strain it out and then toss the pieces especially its fruit I'll toss the pieces out to the chickens and they'll eat them or if it's herbs sometimes I'll just throw them in different as compost in different plants and stuff now if I'm going to use it for cleaning with then what I want to do is I want to usually after the initial strain out whatever I decide to put into my spray bottle I'm going to go ahead and strain it again using the mesh strainer after it's all rinsed out and maybe a double layer of cloth I like to use 100% cotton double layer - maybe even triple layered in this and that will get out all those little pieces because you want to keep them out of your bottle your spray bottles so they don't clog up your hose and up in here except how'd that happen before and had to take the sprayer completely apart and clean it out and and then fill and then I filtered out the vinegar better that way so you want to make sure if you're gonna put it in a spray bottle you do the cloth method otherwise for everything else I recommend just using this because it's okay if you get some of those fruit pieces and stuff in there if you're using it for cooking and things like that because this actually be really good for you so you know just kind of depends on how you're gonna use it okay so I'm trying to finished out this video I remembered one more question I didn't even think to write down that I get frequently and that is how long did the vinegars last how do I store them actually a couple of different questions now I store them I just got done filtering out three jars three half gallon jars of my peach vinegar and I've so far with the filtered out vinegar felt filled two half gallon jars so I have a whole gallon here and then I have one more chart of peach vinegar to filter out so I store them like this I store them in a dark cabinet in my pantry you'll come to those doors on it so it stays dark in there all the time and that is where I store my big jars like this once they're all done as far as bottles like this these are the ones I typically keep here in the kitchen in another cabinet I do not store them in the fridge now you can do that if you want it's really going to depend on the acidity of your vinegar you want to try to get your vinegar to a pH of 4.5 which is going to be at least or lower which is going to be at least a 5% acidity on your vinegar and that's what you're trying to shoot for you're gonna have a longer shelf life you're going to be used able to use it for more things if you do that and so it should last for quite a long time I say at least a year I typically work through all of my vinegars within a year now I will say that I have had some vinegars go bad after a few months and those are the ones that never got real acidic and before I started using the stur method and adding more sugar I would have a few that would go bad during the year and you know it because then it will develop mold on top of the strained out vinegar and it will lose all flavor there's no more tartness to it it's just very it's almost like just kind of a nasty tasting water there's there's absolutely no acidity left in it and that's why a mold can grow on it at that point it it needs to be tossed then so you'll know but I just don't have room to store all this in my refrigerator because I always have so much going and now that I've got my you know and it's rare that I've ever had batches go bad but when I have a good high acidity a really good vinegar and even this one wasn't a super high acidity and it's over a year old and it's still good there's nothing wrong with it I would think it would last for a couple of years or more but again it depends on the acidity and me I'm typically working through all of them within a year and so I can't tell you for sure how much longer after that they will last if not refrigerated I think in the refrigerator they should last pretty much indefinitely but anyway so there's that okay well I hope you enjoyed this video and that you learn something new and go ahead and share with us down below what you like to use your vinegar for maybe what your favorite types of vinegar are to make and how you use them alright well thanks for watching take care and God bless [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Rain Country

Views: 63,823

Keywords: traditional, old-ways, Health, Garden, Frugal, Homesteading, Self-Sustainability, Cooking, DIY, Homemade, natural-living, herbs, vinegar making, how to, making your own

Id: ojCF0wO5QBU

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 18 2018