Homemade Cider Vinegar

Some people love vinegar and other people can't stand it. I'm in the former camp. I add vinegar to just about every sauce or soup I make, love it on cooked greens and raw salads. Sometimes I get a hankering to drink cider vinegar raw. I usually come to my senses first, but it is healthful and good stuff. Imagine my relief when I found out just how easy it is to make it at home!

Vinegar is a bacterial ferment that turns alcohol into acetic acid. Remember, alcohol is a yeast fermentation that turns sugar into alcohol. Some people make cider vinegar by allowing raw, fresh pressed cider to do it's own thing with wild yeast and bacteria but I like to shepherd the process along with some simple technology and starters. You can start with raw, pressed cider, pasturized store bought juice or apple scraps and sugar. I used the scraps because that's what I had, and the vinegar turned out great.

I highly recommend that you start by reading the beer, wine and vinegar chapters of Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Try making a beer like the one I write about in my Alewife blog post, or try a wine from one of Sandor's recipes. Once you've tried a beer or wine ferment, vinegar is an easy next step. It's a lengthy process but like all fermentations it's mostly waiting. Take an adventure, give it a try.

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Scrap Cider Vinegar ala Broderick Cellars

Hardware:

*A one gallon or so sized bucket or wide mouthed glass jar with a lid

*1 nylon mesh bag, food grade (could use cheesecloth, I guess, but I have a 2 gallon nylon bag I got at a brew store for not very much money)

*A pot, 6 quart or larger

*a stainless steel long handled spoon (or other easily cleaned spoon-like device)

* a cup or jar, pint sized or so

* a measuring cup or kitchen scale

*A one gallon sized glass jug with a narrow mouth (you can buy these at brew shops, or you can buy a jug of Carlo Rossi wine or apple cider invite your friends over and have a party :)

*An air lock and stopper (avaliable at homebrew shops for cheap - Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz has DIY options, but I say buy an airlock, it'll work great and costs like a buck)

*A funnel and strainer and/or a siphon/racking stick/length of food grade plastic piping

Software:

*Apple peels and scraps - about a gallon OR one gallon apple cider

*Sugar and/or apple juice concentrate - see below for amount

*Water, good quality.

*Wine yeast, avaliable at homebrew shops or online

* Unpasturized vinegar like Braggs, a glug or three

Phase One: Make Hard Cider

Day One: Making the Must and Adding the Yeast

If you are using scraps and sugar, follow the directions in this first paragraph. If you are using cider, then heat the cider to pasturize it, cool it to body temperature and skip down to where you add the yeast.

Make a mock apple juice with sugar water and/or apple juice concentrate by heating up water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is just boiling. I use the amount of sugar in apple juice as a guide so 24 g of sugar per cup of juice. That equals about 2 tablespoons of granualted sugar per cup or a half cup sugar per quart of water. You could probably get away with less sugar because there is sugar in the apple peels, but I would add at least a little. (Online Conversion.com is an amazing website to help you convert weights and volumes of common food items... very handy for off the cuff cooking!) You need about a gallon of boiling hot apple juice sugar water.

Put your peels, cores and scraps into your nylon mesh bag and put in "primary fermenter", aka your bucket. If you wanted a wild fermentation you would let the sugar water cool to body temperature and then pour over the apples, cover with a cloth and let ferment. I like to guarantee alcoholic fermentation by adding wine yeast. Take out a cup or so of the sweet water and let it cool to body temperature in a small jar or cup. Pour the rest of the hot sugar water over the apples in the bucket and stir to combine everything well. Put the lid on the bucket and let everything cool to body temperature. Body temperature means it feels neither hot nor cold. It's a little cooler than bath water, about 100 degrees F.

While the apple must (juice ready for fermenting) is cooling add your wine yeast to the small jar of body temperature sugar water. It will start to get frothy and smell yeasty after 10 or 20 minutes. When the must is body temperature and the yeast is primed (active and ready to work) then pitch(pour) the yeast into the must and cover the bucket with the lid again. The lid shouldn't be air tight, but it should be closed. The guy who taught me to brew used a 5 gallon bucket with a small hole drilled in the lid as his primary fermenter. He covered the holewith a clean coffee filter and then the whole lid with a clean dishtowel. I have a glass jar with a glass lid that doesn't fit down tight and that works fine, too. Day one is completed. Your must is beginning to ferment?

Day Two: Check Fermenting Cider

Now you will leave your fermenting cider to do it's thing for a couple days. On the first morning check it the next morning to make sure it's frothy and fermenty (if it's not, email me and we'll make an emergency plan B) Every day or so clean off your "easily cleaned spoon like device" and stir the cider around making sure to mush any floating fruit back down under the liquid. Do this quickly and try to keep the lid on as much as possible while stirring. The active fermentation will make it difficult for contaminating bacteria or yeast to get a foothold in there, but it could happen. 5-10 days after you started fermenting it is time to "rack" (move the liquid offthe solid stuff) the cider into your "secondary fermenter" (jug with an airlock- isn't brewing lingo fun?!?).

Day Three: Racking into Secondary Fermentation

On racking day clean up your whole kitchen, your kitchen sink and the secondary fermenter and funnel/sipon tubing. I use hot water and soap with three rinses of hot water, but others would have you use bleach or some more serious disenfectant. Have a trash bag or compost bucket handy. With your primary fermenter situated near your sink and garbage take the lid off and pull the nylon bag out of the liquid. With clean hands squeeze it a little to get most of the liquid out of the fruit. Put the fruit in your garbage or compost and set the bag aside to clean later (but not too much later. Don't forget, ask me how I know. It was gross).

Now you have to get the cider into your secondary fermenter. One way to do this is to siphon it. Stick the clean tubing into the primary fermenter until most of it is in the liquid, put your thumb over the end of the tube and pull it out ofthe liquid until the part of the tube with the liquid is below the bottom of the fermenter (like in the sink or on the floor below the counter), put the tube inyour secondary fermenter and take your hand off the end of the tube. The liquid will pour through the tube into the jug. Magic. This guy has pretty good instructions with photos. The other way to do this is to gently pour the liquid out of the bucket into the strainer in the funnel and into the jug. Either way works.

Once your jug is filled up to about the shoulder of the jug then put the airlock on it. There are a couple varieties of air lock but all involve filling a small portion of the lock with water and putting the stopper and lock on the mouth of the jug. Put the jug back in a safe, dark spot where it won't be disturbed or have major temperature fluctuations (ie: basement good, back porch bad). Label it well with what it is and the date you started fermenting and the date you racked it (the labels on my jugs are my record keeping system, what exactly goes on your label is up to you)

Aaaaand, now we wait a few months. Like three, or six. You will know the cider is done fermenting because you won't really see bubbles coming up out of the airlock anymore. Also, the cider should clear up as the yeast die and fall to the bottom of the jug.

Thanks to Anthony at Homestead Pretty for the gorgeous photo. Go check out their post on making honey wine!

Day Four: Racking Off the Yeast

When you have a relatively clear cider and hardly any bubbles coming up through the air lock then you can taste the cider. The easiest way to do this is to stick a small amount of tubing or a straw into the jug, put your finger over the top and pull the liquid out. A syringe with some tubing would work too. You don't want to disturb the yeast bed. Does your cider taste alcoholic? If not, come back for emergency plan B, but most likely it will. It may not taste good, but it should taste alcoholic.

At this point, you can rack the cider off the yeast bad (carefully, with the tubing - a commercial racking stick works great here because it is stiff and has holes in the tubing half an inch up from the bottom so you pull the liquid from above the yeast bed. Tubing can work with some careful holding to keep the end off the yeast bed) and either bottle it to age for drinking as hard cider, or make vinegear.

Congratulations! You are done with phase one!

Phase Two: Making Vinegar

You've racked the cider off the yeast in the secondary fermenter. You can rack it into another jug, into your original bucket or into a number of smaller jars. Ultimately, you will want to get the liquid into containers with relatively wide mouths because vinegar is an aerobic (with oxygen/air) fermentation. We used the airlock to keep oxygen out of the alcohol fermentation, but will work to get air into the vinegar fermentation. I put my cider into 3 or 4 quart sized mason jars and recommend that, but you can find containers that work just right for you. It should be glass, though.

Pour the cider into the container(s) you are going to make the vinegar in. It is OK, and even a good thing to let this pouring incorporate lots of oxygen intothe mix. Pour it from as high up as you can, let it splash around a bit. Add a goodly dose of raw vinegar to your cider.. I'd say 1/8-1/4 cup vinegar per quart of cider. If your vinegar has a mother in or on it - the rubbery or stringy floaty bits - then add those to the cider, too. That's the good stuff.

Cover the container(s) of cider with something that will allow air in and out, but keep out bugs and dust. I put two layers of coffee filter over the mouth of the jar and held it in place with a mason jar ring. Cloth and string or rubberbands would work too. Label, label label.

A note - this ferment should be kept away from any other alcohol ferments you are doing like beer or wine. You might also want to keep it away from kombucha ferments, though I don't. Vinegar bacteria can spoil alcohol ferments(make them vinegar when what you really wanted was wine) and could potentially cross contaminate with kombucha. My vinegars have turned into kombugar and I don't care if my kombucha becomes vineguchaor, but some people might.

In a couple weeks or a month or whenever you think about it, see how your vinegar is doing. Is there a mother on top? It looks kinda like a kombucha scoby but might be quite thin like a film. Does it smell vinegary? It's OK, maybe even adviseable, to lift the mothers off the jars (carefully keeping them a side to add back) and pour, mix and aerate the vinegar. I had three jars going and would get out a fourth and pour everything back and forth among the jars, mixing and aerating everything. Then add the mothers back to the jars, cover with the paper or cloth and let them sit another few months. When it is vinegary to your liking, it's vinegar! :)

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It sounds super complicated, but it's not really, I promise. Like I said, check out Wild Fermentation for good, simple instructions with clear illustrations. Google "home wine making" for more info and make friends at your local brewstore. They're friendly folks there, no doubt. Your vinegar will keep in the cupboard for close to forever so don't worry about making too much. I have recently been infusing my vinegar with different flavors - rosemary, oregano and blueberry are my favorites so far.

If you have any questions, pleae leave a comment. I tried to write this as clearly as possible, but maybe I didn't. The best way to learn this stuff, of course, is to meet someone who can show you. Good luck with your vinegar, and all your kitchen brews!

Posted as part of Real Food Wednesday! Check it out!!

The Making of an Alewife

Almost two years ago now I met a very lovely man who I like to call the Brewmeister. The Brewmeister had recently come back from a 9 month program in Berlin to learn to brew beer but had previously thought about earning a bachelors in fermentation science at Oregon State University because he loved making wine and mead almost as much as he loved making beer. Before too very long the Brewmeister and I were cohabitating and fermenting like crazy fools. It wasn't all unicorns and rainbows so when spring rolled around this year the Brewmeister moved to Alaska and I kept a fair amount of his brewing supplies. Who said men are good for nothing? :)

This summer I have been putting the skills I learned at the Brewmeister's side to use in making my own beer and wine. Brewing alcholic beverages has an acient history and some say it might even have been the ultimate factor in humans deciding to stop wandering and set down roots and build a civilization. The theory is that people grew grains not to make bread but to make beer, and once you are making beer you need storehouses for the grain and the beer... plus pubs to drink it all in. Until the 1516 Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law, was enacted (and even well after it in many places) beer was brewed with a wide variety of grains and herbs, often by women in their own homes. On it's surface the Reinheitsgebot, which restricts beer ingredients to malted barley, water and hops (plus yeast, but that wasn't identified as a crucial ingredient until the 19th century) is a trade protection law to reduce competition with both local bakers and brewers in other regions. Digging a little deeper it probably also had anti-pagan, anti-"drug" and anti-women motives as well. Many of the old style beers were made with herbs that were psychotropic and used in ancient cermonies that predate the puritanical Christianity that was gaining popularity at the time. Hops, a common but not at the time universal bittering and preserving agent in beers, are actually a depressant and anaphrodisiac. People who drink hopped beer don't generally have the energy for all night frolicking like those who drank the ancient gruit ale. No matter the reasons behind the Reinheitsgebot the results were clear - a Teutonic culture of pure beer, made in factories by men using chemicals and precise measurements. This is how the Brewmeister tended to brew.

Being a disciple of Sandor Katz and uncounted generations of alewives brewing in their kitchens I have adopted a much more free flowing style. All of my experience making fermented vegetables had led to me have faith in the microbes. If you give them a reasonable place to set up shop, they will! My first beers were literally "a little of this, a little of that, throw in some yeast". Honestly, that first beer is quite drinkable. I did actually cave and buy a kitchen scale after the first brew day and my second beer is much better.

My first two beers are fir tip beers brewed with both hops and the young tips of Douglas Fir trees. Doug Firs are the state tree of Oregon and insanely common where I live. I collected the tips in March and April from trees growing my parents' yard and my everyday dog walk park. They have imparted a lovely acidic and tannic flavor to what would otherwise be a rather boring amber ale. Here is my recipe and instructions. These may look complicated but they are not. In fact, brewing can be a lifetime pursuit and there is always more to learn. But the first step is just brewing some.

The ingredients to make beer are neither expensive nor exotic. If there is a home brewing supply store in your town you are all set and if you don't I'm sure everything can be found online for a reasonable price. Right now I am making beer using malt extract which is basically a molasses or syrup made from malt sugar. The more advanced method of making beer involves extracting the sugar out of malted barley yourself. This involves considerably more equipment and skill but yields a much more complex beer. Malt extract is avaliable in many colors at home brew supply stores or over the internet. Hops are the other main ingredient in beer and both they and brewing yeast are also easily found at brewing supply stores. The variety of hop is not too important in this beer (some hops have lots of bitterness and little aroma, others the other way around) so get something middle of the road if the brewing supply folks ask what you need. I used an American ale yeast, but again it's not terribly important. Anything that isn't a specialty yeast will work just fine.

I will list out both the hardware and the software you need but you can certainly get away with less or load up on more, especially in the hardware department! I will give instructions for a one gallon batch as opposed to the more common five gallon batch because I think it is easier to start small. As soon as you get the hang of it, scale up. I highly recommend reading all the recipes, forums and books you can get your hands on (I highly, highly recommend Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation) and then just give it a try. Remember, the yeast will make alcohol, all you are doing is setting the table for them.

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Broderick Cellars Fir Tip Ale

Step One: Brew Day

Hardware:

*Cooking pot with a lid

*Stainless steel long handled spoon

*Cheese cloth or other mesh "hop bags" or a strainer

*Kitchen scale or other device to weigh a couple ounces of plant material

*A second pot or 1/2 gallon glass jar

*A small glass jar, coffee mug or pot

*Timer

*Funnel and strainer

*1 gallon glass jug - this is called a carboy or fermenter

*Air lock and stopper

*A stove or other device to heat water to boiling and keep it there, as well as running cold water, *A tub of ice water or some other way to cool a volume of liquid relatively quickly.

Software:

*Pale or amber malt extract - 1 pint (it is usually sold in 7 or 14 pound tubs. It stores forever so don't worry about buying too much)
*Hops - 20 g of whole hops (Any variety that is not a specialty bittering or aroma hop)
*Fir tips - 40g (Be sure to collect only the young, soft, light green tips. They have a lovely citrusy, christmas tree smell but less tannin and bitterness than the older, dark green tips. The young tips of any edible conifer would do. Spruce is traditional but many pines are edible too)
*1 packet of dry ale yeast (Don't let them talk you into "pitchable yeast". Since you are making a 1 gallon batch you want to be able to use less than a whole packet. Any American or non-specialty yeast will do)
*Good drinking water. People always claim that their water is the reason their beer or wine is so good. If your tap water is icky, buy bottled water. Or better yet, find a well or a spring.

Method:

Start heating a half gallon plus a pint (10 cups) of water in a good quality cooking pot and 4 cups of water boiling in a second pot. Measure out your hops and divide them into two hop bags. One bag should have 15g of hops in and the other one should have 5g. Measure out the fir tips and put 20g in a third hop bag and the remainder in your glass jar or other container that can hold at least cups of water. When the smaller pot has come to a boil pour the boiling water over the fir tips in the jar and let steep. This is your fir tip tea.

As the larger pot of water gets hot pour in the malt extract. Carefully swirl hot water in the measuring cup to get as much malt out as possible. Stir to help the malt dissolve and pull out one cup or so and put that in your coffee mug and allow it to cool. Continue stirring or watching the pot until it comes to a full boil. It may get frothy so be careful with it. When it is boiling add the bag with 15g of hops and the bag with the fir tips in it to the boiling malt water. Stir or push them under the water and then put the lid on the pot and turn the heat down to where it maintains a strong simmer/low boil, but isn't boiling over. (OK - they say you shouldn't boil your wort with the lid on because it can cause off flavors. When I boiled with the lid off I had such great loss of volume I had a hard time topping it off. Read some other recipes and do whatever feels best to you). Again, be careful because all the sugar in the water may cause it to boil over. Set your timer for 55 minutes.

Check the coffee mug of sugar water to see how cool it is. When it is body temperature - when you touch it it feel neither cold nor warm - pour approximately 1/2 tsp of the dry yeast into the cup. Let the yeast dissolve into the sugar water and start to feed and bloom. By the end of the boiling period your yeast should be starting to get frothy and it should smell like yeasty bread batter. Fold up the packet, put it in a zip top bag and store it in the freezer until you need more.

Clean your carboy and funnel with hot water and soap. Many brewing books and experts suggest sterilizing with bleach water. Sandor Katz and I say cleanliness not sterility. Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers uses a hop tea to disinfect his brewing supplies. Do whatever makes you feel most comfortable.

When your timer goes off drop in the second hop bag, reset your timer for 5 more minutes and put the lid back on. When the timer goes off a second time turn the heat off and start fishing out the hop bags with your stainless steel spoon. Use a second spoon or some tongs to squeeze as much liquid out of them as possible and set them aside (don't forget to empty and clean them as soon as they cool. Ask me how I know).

Fill your sink with cold water or ice water and put the pot, with the lid on, in the sink. Stir the wort (as your unfermented beer is now called) with a clean spoon, and swish the cold water around to cool the wort quickly. You don't want to get any of the water into the wort so keep the lid on. If your fir tip tea is not cooled to body temperature then put that jar in the cold water and swish it around too to cool it off. When both liquids are body temperature or a little cooler, around 80 degrees F, then pour them through a strainer and a funnel into your jug with the yeast. Pour the wort first, splashing it around a bit, then the yeast, and top off with the fir tip tea. Fill the air lock with water up to the fill line and pop the stopper on top of your jug. Put your jug in a dark place with a stable temperature and clean up. Don't forget those hop bags! Brewing day is done!

The next morning check your beer to make sure active fermentation has started. The air lock should be bubbling away and there should be froth on top of the beer. If there is not active fermentation by 24 hours then proof another 1/2 tsp of yeast in warm sugar water and add that to the wort. It'll be fermenting, though, don't worry. Let it sit for 3-4 weeks until primary fermentation is finished. You will know it is ready for bottling because there will be a clear layer of yeast at the bottom of the jug and it will take about 2 minutes for a new bubble to come up out of the airlock.

Step Two: Bottling Day

Hardware:

*Plastic tubing or racking cane (tubing with a stiff end specifically designed for siphoning beer or wine)

*A second one gallon jug or a cooking pot that will hold 1 gallon (a second jug is a much better choice)

*6 22 oz beer bottles or 11 12 oz bottles. I prefer the ones with a flip top because then you don't need caps and a capper. If you don't want to spend for the flip top bottles you can reuse beer bottles that were not twist tops. Buy a capper and caps at the same supply house you bought malt and hops at.

Software:

*4 oz by weight of malt or corn sugar, or white sugar. That's 4 tbs malt sugar, 2/3 cup white sugar or 3/4 cup corn sugar. The malt or corn sugar can be bought at the brew supply store or sometimes for a whole lot more money at a health food store. White sugar gives a different flavor, but certainly can be used.

When primary fermentation has slowed (layer of yeast on the bottom of the jug and about 2 minutes between air lock gurgles) you are ready to bottle your beer. Start out by washing and santizing your jug, bottles and racking hose. Again, use hot water and soap, bleach or hop tea as you see fit. If you using bottle caps instead of flip top bottles be sure to read up on how to use them.

Heat about a cup of water in a small pan on the stove and stir in the sugar. Bring to a boil to dissolve and sterilize and then let cool a bit. Pour the cooled sugar water into the clean second jug. This sugar is going to mix with the beer and give the yeast a second wind in the bottles forming carbonation.

Bring your fermenting beer out of the closet and put the jug on the counter with the second jug on the floor or a bench below the counter. Insert the racking cane into the beer and either follow this guy's instructions for sterile siphoning or do like I do and swish your mouth with scotch and suck the beer into the tube. Have a glass handy to pour the first bit of beer into and then put the end of the tube into the jug with the sugar water in it. Try not to let it bubble and slosh too much, but you can gently stir the beer to mix it with the sugar water. As the beer is siphoning into the second jug get your bottles all lined up in the sink or on a easily cleaned surface lower than your counter. Taste your uncarbonated beer from the glass. How does it taste? Anything short of disgusting and you are well on your way to good homebrew.

When all the beer, but not much of the yeasty sediment, is in the second jug put the airlock back on the first jug and bring the second one up to the counter. Insert the racking cane and start the beer flowing again, this time into the bottles. Again, try not to splash or slosh the beer as you fill the bottles to within an inch or two of the top. With only 6 or 12 bottles this won't take too long and you can flip the flip top when you are done (or use a capper to cap them, which won't take too long either). Rinse or wipe your bottles off and stash them away in a dark, coolish spot and clean up.

The yeasty sediment in the bottom of your fermenter can be saved and used for your next brew. Swish the yeast and leftover beer together and pour into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Stash it in the fridge and on next brew day wake the yeast up by mixing the contents of the jar with warm sugar water while you boil the wort. You may never have to pay for ale yeast again!

Store your bottles in a dark spot with a stable room temperature. During the next three weeks the yeast will eat up the sugar you gave them and produce carbon dioxide to carbonate the beer. After 2 or 3 weeks pop a bottle in the fridge overnight to chill and open it to taste it. If it's carbonated put the other bottles in the fridge and drink up. If not, either drink the beer (it's still homebrew!) or pour it on your compost pile and wait another week to try again. Darker beers will continue to age over time while lighter beers are more at risk of spoiling. I've had some of this beer in the fridge for 2 months and it is still changing flavor and still getting better. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't taste good anymore and you'll need to brew another batch.

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So there it is, one alewife's guide to brewing a 1 gallon batch of beer. I highly recommend reading Wild Fermentation and Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers as well as spending time on the homebrew forums or chatting with the fine folks at your local brew supply store. You'll learn lots more about brewing beer and maybe figure out some better ways to do it!

Brewing beer is not that difficult. In a future post I will talk about making wine, which is a very similar process. Wine is possibly easier to start but takes months, if not years, to finish and age. Beer takes a little more work up front but is ready to drink is just over a month. In the end it is all just setting a table and inviting the right yeast to the party. It's not hard, it's not expensive and the results are well worth it. Even a middling homebrew is better than a fine commercial beer.

Prost!