Learn how to make apple cider vinegar, even if you’ve never fermented anything before. It is really easy and affordable. All you need is apple juice, raw ACV, and time! If you are using pickles made with apple cider vinegar, unfiltered apple juice, then you could let it spontaneously ferment from the free-range bacteria and yeasts in your home.
However, this isn’t the most reliable option. The traditional way to make vinegar is to ferment juice with champagne yeast into hard apple cider. Scrap apple vinegar is made using the cores and peels of apple juice, mixed with raw sugar to feed the ferment. It’s not as acidic or flavorful as ACV. But it is a good way to use up apple scraps! The EASIEST way to make apple cider vinegar is to inoculate juice with a vinegar mother.
Keeping the ferment open to the air allows wild yeasts to help convert the sugars to alcohol, while the vinegar mother converts the alcohol into vinegar. An apple cider vinegar mother is comprised of acetic acid bacteria. There are plenty of brands of apple cider vinegar that contain a mother. However, not all store-bought cider vinegar is cultured. Less expensive brands are colored and flavored like ACV, but they’re not actually cultured apple cider vinegar. How do you know which brands are cultured? Cultured apple cider vinegar will have dark floating bits that settle on the bottom of the bottle.
Look for brands that are labeled raw, unpasteurized, or with mother. What if my vinegar made a rubbery disk? Discovering a rubbery disk floating on top of your vinegar is totally fine. It is called a vinegar pellicle. And it is a combination of a mother and cellulose.
I usually get a vinegar pellicle with scrap apple or apple cider vinegar. Other fruits seem less inclined to form pellicles. They are perfect for culturing future batches of vinegar. Pear, blueberry, and peach vinegar are all delicious! There’s a reason why orange juice isn’t used to make wine, cider, or vinegar!