Vinegar Done November 27, 2018 @goldenoakfarm
Back on October 10th we ground the apples and I set the cider to turn:
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@goldenoakfarm/making-vinegar-november-15-2018-goldenoakfarm
Yesterday I decided the vinegar had been in my living room for long enough and brought it out to get ready to store. When I set it to turn, I decided to do an experiment. I put ½ cheesecloth with no mother added on 4 bottles, and ½ buttercloth with some real good mothers added on/in in the other 4.
Above, buttercloth on left, cheesecloth on right. There are some obvious differences, even though they started with exactly the same cider.
The mothers from the buttercloth jars
In these jars I put big healthy mothers I had stored from previous batches. I did that because I was covering them with buttercloth and wasn’t sure the microbes for inoculation would get through. In previous years, I’d used cheesecloth per instructions and fruit flies got in and inoculated. Not crazy about that method…
The color of the buttercloth jars was much lighter. You can see the long pieces from the mothers hanging down.
There was much less sediment.
And the tops of the jars were much cleaner.
The mothers from the cheesecloth jars
These mothers were much thinner, contaminated from the flies, and didn’t look as healthy.
These cheesecloth jars had a much deeper color.
There was a lot more sediment.
There was a lot of detritus around the tops of all the cheesecloth jars.
I removed all the mothers from all the jars using tongs. Tongs allow a quick grab, which is all you get before they sink. Then I cleaned the tops of the jars and filled them to the top. There had been a small amount of evaporation over the weeks.
I used the buttercloth jars to fill the half full cheesecloth jar. I then used that same one to fill the remaining buttercloth jars. I had a pint leftover. I labeled the jars and dated them. They went down to the root cellar.
Buttercloth mothers
The one in the upper left was the biggest thickness wise. You can see there were 2 that had grown long thin pieces. The one on the lower left looked something like a jellyfish.
The dark spots were just where they had dried out. They were clean and healthy.
Cheesecloth mothers
There a big difference with these mothers. They are all contaminated with mold and flies. Two are very thin, one near translucent. The other 2 did better but none are healthy, like the buttercloth ones.
So in future, I will continue to store my best mothers and use them and buttercloth only to make vinegar.
thank you for the tutorial!
I have not tried to make vinegar yet. this year we had quite a bit of juice. I am brewing melomels .we had an abundance of honey so it just seemed like the way to go. Vinegar is on my list though
We don't drink alcohol, so brewing isn't on our radar. But I use a lot of vinegar each year.
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Making vinegar is on my list of things to do! Looks amazing
And real easy! Just keep things clean, and store in cool place out of sunlight until done.
Oooh, I have never seen this done... I have never tried making vinegar.... and I am not sure I will start either, lol.
Great explanation of your comparisons and the process.
I might never have either but for an enormous bumper crop of apples from our single tree a few years back. The hard part is having a good press available.
Lol..... lots of applesauce, gifting out, and the rest for the horses and wildlife is what I would have done, lol 🤣😉
We did give a LOT of it, huge shopping bags full, did make some apples sauce, no horses or pigs that year, so vinegar... and in the end we had a neighbor with pigs come a fill his pickup with what was left! One tree...
What is buttercloth? I have just cracked last year's pear vinegar and it is beautiful!
It is a much more closely woven muslin type material. It will catch all the solids if you are making cheese. And for vinegar, the fruit flies can't get through it.
I used to double fold my cheesecloth... that wpuld probably work?
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Nope, the cheesecloth I used in the experiment was doubled. They went right through. And no matter how many thicknesses you make for cheese, you lose a lot.