Apple vinegar in the making

This week is all about the Apple Vinegar! I love the taste of it When I was small I remember I used to drink it in small sips. So what do you do in order to make some for yourself?
You need a lot of apples, some sugar, a big enough container, water and a vinegar mother or mother of vinegar ( a gelatinous membrane called a biofilm that forms on top of a liquid being made into vinegar. It seems like a strange substance but it is completely natural and is actually a form of cellulose created by bacteria that produce acetic acid, the acid that is in all vinegar).
Once you have a vinegar mother you have the ability to turn almost any alcohol into vinegar. To make vinegar you can transfer the vinegar mother to wine, cider, beer or spirits that have been diluted correctly and the vinegar mother will turn the alcohol into vinegar. Vinegar is made from alcohol being converted into acetic acid by acetic acid-producing bacteria. This is a naturally occurring phenomenon and would have happened for thousands of years because as long as humans have been making alcohol to drink it would have eventually turned to vinegar given enough time. The alcohol will also need to be the correct strength. High alcohol content drinks such as whiskey or rum will not turn to vinegar because the high level of ethanol acts as a preservative. Once diluted to around 6% ABV the bacteria that makes vinegar will be able to grow and thrive in order to make vinegar.
In our case we just washed and cut the apples and mix them with water and sugar and we introduced the bacteria 2 weeks later.
For centuries, people have been consuming apple cider vinegar due to several perceived health benefits. Many people like to mix it with raw honey and water to make it more palatable, and to take advantage of the additional benefits of raw honey.

Written by Dragomir