Fruit vinegar
General process is to start fermenting the usual way, then do a second ferment by exposing it to air so that the alcohol converts to acid. You can use fruit scraps to do this:
- First week: Mix fruit scraps, 1 tbsp-ish of sugar per cup of water, cover with cooled, boiled, filtered water. Let it go until you see healthy bubbling. Should take about a week.
- Second week: Filter out fruit scraps, possibly add a tablespoon of vinegar or better yet a mother, cover with cheesecloth, let it go for 3-4 weeks, stirring every day.
Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe
Ingredients:
- Apples. Can just use the scraps (core, peel, etc.). I've seen different opinions on the seeds, so I leave them out.
- Ratio of 1 cup of filtered, boiled water to 1 tbsp sugar
- Optional: Mother from previous vinegar
Fill sterilized jar 3/4 way with apple and scraps. Add enough sugar water to fill the bottle. Make sure the apples are submerged. Cover with cheesecloth.
Place jar in cool, dark place for 2-3 weeks, checking regularly to make sure apples are submerged. Bubbles indicate that fermentation is starting. A white foam will eventually form on top. This will become the mother in a few weeks. After 2-3 weeks, it should taste apple-y and sweet, but not yet acidic.
Strain the liquid into the original jar, cover with cheesecloth, and let sit for another 3-4 weeks, stirring every few days. Start tasting after a week. When it reaches the desired acidity, you can start using it.
If you have some mother from a previous ferment, use that in initial mixture. That will speed up the fermentation.
It's better not to use homemade vinegar for pickling unless you can assure that it has an acetic acid level of at least 5%.
History
Apple Vinegar (October 2025)
June 10, 2026
Opened the jar with some trepidation. Smelled nicely fragrant and boozy! Strained and composted the solids, rinsed the jar out, re-added the liquid, and added the mother from the 2024 apple cider vinegar I had saved.
October 17, 2025
Added cores and peels from homegrown apples I used for a baked dish to a jar. Added some sugar and covered it with about 3 cups of cooled, boiled water. Closed the jar.
Plum Vinegar (July 2025)
July 3, 2026
I liked the 2:1 vinegar to water ratio, so I watered down the rest of my vinegar.
June 10, 2026
I had neglected it for a year, and when I opened it today, I discovered it was fragrantly acidic. A mother had formed on top, probably sealing everything nicely below. There were a rung of fruit fly larvae around the lip of the 항아리, which I removed. I then strained and bottled the vinegar. Experimenting some, I think that adding 50 percent water will make it taste better, as it's very acidic. It's also not sweet in the slightest, and I can't really taste plum.
Bottled most of it straight up and one bottle watered down. Also put the mother in a jar and covered it with the vinegar. Yay!
I composted the spent flesh, but now I wish I had saved and frozen it for use in quick breads. Next time!
July 21, 2025
Took the dregs from my first round of fermentation with my plum wine, put them in my next size smaller 항아리, added a half cup of sugar and about six cups of cooled, boiled water. Still plenty of room for liquid, so will add another six cups tomorrow morning.
July 22, 2025
Filled the remaining space in my 항아리 with water, then added some of the strawberry plum vinegar I made last year to both prevent fungus and also start the vinegar process.
Peach Vinegar (October 2024)
October 24, 2024
Had three gnarly old peaches in the refrigerator. Chopped them up, took out the pits, added them to some leftover elderberry vinegar, added a spoonful of honey and a tablespoon of sugar. Will let it ferment for a few weeks.
February 25, 2025
Finally filtered out the peaches. It smelled and tasted boozy, but it was not sweet at all. Liquid filled about half the jar. Added three tablespoons of sugar, the mother from the apple cider vinegar I made at the same time (see below), filled the rest of the jar with boiled water, and covered with cheesecloth. Will let it go for a month, and see what I have.
June 4, 2025
Transferred it to a jar. Could have done this a month or two ago, but all good. Tastes good and acidic. Have just under a cup. Transferred the mother to some old champagne.
Apple Cider Vinegar (September 2024)
September 21, 2024
Cut up pieces of an old apple that had been lying around on the corner, put it in a jar, covered with water, added a tablespoon of sugar.
September 23, 2024
Already forming clear bubbles. Smells great.
October 6, 2024
Smelling a little funky. Removed old apple, added pieces of a new apple that had been lying around. Filled up the jar with water, added another tablespoon of sugar.
October 24, 2024
Tossed the old apple, added some apple cider vinegar, added another tablespoon of sugar, topped it off with boiled water, and covered with cheesecloth.
February 18, 2025
Smells and tastes great, and also developed a wonderful mother, which I put in my peach vinegar (see above).
Elderberry Vinegar (September 2024)
September 10, 2024
Took the mash from my elderberry syrup, added some water, boiled it for 10 more minutes to make sure the hydrocyanic acid boiled out of the seeds. Let it cool, added a spoonful of honey. We'll see what happens!
September 21, 2024
Was developing fungus. Strained the mash, added more water, added another tablespoon of sugar.
September 26, 2024
Took a while, but it's started to froth at top!
October 3, 2024
It's been bubbling like crazy, and it smells very boozy! Weety and I finished the elderberry syrup (with fig leaf ice cream!), so I used the boozy vinegar-to-be to rinse out the dregs of the syrup, put it back in the jar, filled it to the top, added another tablespoon of sugar, added a dash of the strawberry-plum-apple vinegar, covered with cheesecloth, and set aside. Check it at the end of the month!
October 24, 2024
Smells vinegary. Tastes a little light, though. May have watered it down too much. Added another tablespoon of sugar, and bottled it up.
Strawberry Plum Vinegar (August 2024)
August 17, 2024
Had a handful of strawberries that were on the verge and a plum from Andrew and Barbara’s garden that had shriveled in the fridge. Decided to try making a small (about a cup’s worth) jar of vinegar / shrub.
Halved the strawberries and plums (removed the pit from the plum). Covered fruit with a large spoonful of raw honey.
Started macerating almost immediately. By the evening, honey had dissolved in a beautiful fruit juice.
August 21, 2024
After swishing the jar regularly for the past week, noticed active bubbling. Smells boozy. In the evening, I added an apple core.
August 26, 2024
Still bubbling, although not as vigorously as before. Strained out the fruit (freezing it to bake into a bread later), filled the jar with apple cider vinegar, and topped it with cheesecloth. Will see how this tastes in two weeks.
September 1, 2024
Looks and smells beautiful. Tasted it. Very acidic! I suppose I could just water it down. Purchased some acidity strips to see if I could measure the actual acidity. Will arrive later this week.
September 5, 2024
Tasted. Could be my imagination, but tastes slightly mellower, although still acidic. Test strip suggests a pH of 3, which is the right range, but it actually could have as low as 2.5. For canning, acidity should be 5%, although the only way to test for this is titration. Regardless, I think it's ready. I'll let it continue to ferment while I find an appropriate bottle.
September 13, 2024
Bottled it and tasted. It's delicious! Yay!
Apple Cider Vinegar (December 2022)
December 26, 2022
Started a batch with cores, skins, and some chunks from Eun-Joung's apples. (Made an apple galette earlier.) Filled with sugar water and some raw vinegar to help it get going. Filled a half gallon jar, and loosely covered.
January 12, 2023
Filtered out apple bits. Smells and tastes good. Good foaming action. Had been mixing it mostly regularly (except when I was out of town.) Had some mold from neglect, which I removed a few times. Covered with cheesecloth. Will check in again in a month.
February 2023
Smelled bad. Fail! I think I should have let an initial fermentation start and go first.
Pear Vinegar (October 2021)
October 11, 2021
Started a vinegar from the cores and stems leftover from making pear wine. Added them to a jar, filled with about four cups of boiled, then cooled filtered water, four tablespoons of sugar, and some raw apple cider vinegar. Covered with cheesecloth.
October 21, 2021
Removed cores and stems, then added leftover mash from pear wine, transferring everything to a gallon jar. Loosely covered with cap, because I was afraid the pear mash would rise and separate (which did indeed happen).
November 1, 2021
Removed mash, filtered and transferred to a half gallon jar. Covered with cheesecloth.
December 21, 2021
Tasted and bottled. A little sour — may have let it go slightly longer than optimal — but tastes nice! Fit two 500mL bottles + a little jar for the dregs, which I'll use for my electrolytes mix.
Success!
Apple Cider Vinegar (November 2019)
November 6, 2019
Noon-ish, started a jar.
November 7, 2019
No foam. Turns out Eun-Joung had some store bought raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, so decided to add two spoonfuls. In retrospect, wish I had done this with Mom's homemade persimmon vinegar instead, but all good. Curious to see how much this accelerates things, if at all.
November 8, 2019
No foam. Smells sour (a la the vinegar) — not as pleasant as it was before, but not bad.
November 9, 2019
No change.
November 10, 2019
Foaming! Wonder if this was accelerated by using the same wooden spoon I had used to mix the apple wine without washing it first. Either way, it's a good sign.
November 11, 2019
Still foaming away.
November 12, 2019
Foaming seems to have slowed. Starting to smell sour again. Time to filter for second ferment soon?
November 14, 2019
Strained solids, rinsed jar, added liquid back. Filled the gap with water, and covered with cheesecloth.
Worried that I ended this initial fermentation too soon. Was supposed to be 2-3 weeks, only did about a week, but I did add a few spoonfuls of raw vinegar which may have accelerated this.
November 15, 2019
Noticed a little film forming on top. Maybe the mother? Also smelling more vinegary. A little relieved.
November 17, 2019
Starting to turn dark in color, perhaps from the oxidization. Much darker than the wine. Think it’s going well.
December 2019
Fail.
