http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.rss http://www.earthclinic.com/template_img/logo.jpg http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.rss How To Make Apple Cider Vinegar at Home Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:33:32 EST en-us http://www.earthclinic.com/Redirect.php?pageLink=/Remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.html&name=HOW_25085 /Remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.rss1 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT [QUESTION] Malcolm from Metcalfe, Ontario, Canada writes: "How do I make more vinegar using natural vinegar starter? I am presently taking two TSP's shortly before meals to suposedly promote the flow of digestive juices to aid the takeup of nutrients: ie. the breakdown of foodstuff into juices my gut can absorb easily. At home in the 'thirty's', I recall cloudy slimey stuff forming in the vinegar jug that was called and made it too strong to use directly but there was a recipe of adding sugar and water to make more useable vinegar. What is it? All of the articles I've read are vague (deliberately ?) on precisely how vinegar is first made or grown and then processed for eternal shelf life which is fair enough for a business but C$3 or 4 is a bit much for 1/4 US gallon in the specialty shops. " http://www.earthclinic.com/Redirect.php?pageLink=/Remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.html&name=RF_15558 /Remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.rss2 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EDT [YEA] Bill from Vernon, CT writes: "Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe Procedure for Making Traditional Hard Apple Cider (Found at: http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/vinegar-making.html) 1) Use one gallon (3.8 Liters) of freshly pressed apple juice from your local apple orchard. The juice should be unfiltered, additive free, and non-pasteurized for maximum nutrition and flavor and to allow the natural yeasts in the juice to ferment the sugar to alcohol. 2) Determine the amount of sugar in the apple juice by measuring its specific gravity or density with a simple hydrometer. The more sugar contained in the apple juice, the higher its density. Juice made from North American dessert apples will have a specific gravity between 1.040 and 1.050 and if allowed to ferment fully, will result in a hard cider with around 5.5 to 6.5 percent alcohol content. If, on the off chance you find the apple juice specific gravity less than 1.040, then add some plain old granulated white sugar (sucrose) directly to the juice as follows: Add 2.25 ounces (67.5 grams) of sugar to raise the specific gravity of one gallon of juice by 5 points (for example from 1.035 to 1.040). 3) Unscrew the top of the one gallon juice container, screw on a fermentation air lock, and allow the container to stand at room temperature for 6 to 8 weeks. The air lock will allow the carbon dioxide gas, produced during the fermentation, to escape while at the same time preventing the oxygen in the air from getting into the cider and interfering with the reaction. 4) After 6 to 8 weeks the fermentation will be complete. There will be no more carbon dioxide gas escaping through the air lock and there will be a thick deposit of lees at the bottom of the container. To make sure all the sugar has been converted to alcohol, check the cider's specific gravity, which should be less than 1.005. If the reading is still to high, wait another week and test again. To compute the alcohol content of the completed apple cider, take a hydrometer reading (using the potential alcohol scale) after fermentation and subtract it from the value you obtained before fermentation. 5) Separate the cider from the lees by siphoning the liquid into clean storage bottles using a section of plastic tubing. (Tubing with a 0.5 inch inside diameter will do fine.) You are now ready to make your own homemade apple cider vinegar, just follow the procedure outlined in Vinegar Making Starting from Hard Apple Cider. Vinegar Making Starting from Hard Apple Cider 1. Fill a thoroughly cleaned wide-mouthed glass jar (a 700 ml mason jar will due fine) with about 500 ml of 5 to 6% hard apple cider. 2. Add 50 ml of unpasteurized and unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar which contains some mother of vinegar (Available at most health food stores).This will quick-start the vinegar making process. 3. Cover the jar top with two layers of cheesecloth, this will allow vinegar bacteria and oxygen from the air to get to the surface of the cider without being contaminated with fruit flies and other pests. 4. Place the jar in a warm room but in a dark place away from sunlight, which will interfere with the action of the bacteria. The optimum temperature for vinegar making is about 29 degrees C (85 F). o After about 2 weeks there will be a gelatinous white film floating on top of the liquid, this is the mother of vinegar, which is produced by the vinegar bacteria as it converts the alcohol into vinegar (acetic acid). o Allow the reaction to proceed for at least 4 to 8 weeks, then, if you started with a hard cider with 6% alcohol content, you should have a vinegar with about 5% acetic acid. The age-old method for determining if the vinegar is complete is to simply smell and taste it. No odor or flavor of alcohol should be present. A far more accurate way is to measure the acid content by titration. Inexpensive titration kits can be found at your local wine and beer making shop and are easy to use. Once completed, store the apple cider vinegar into clean long necked glass containers equipped with plastic screw-type caps, and discard the thick mother of vinegar film or reuse it to start-up a new batch. "