Thursday, January 8, 2009

Homemade Apple "Cider" Vinegar Report

A few days ago I decanted my first batch of homemade apple "cider" vinegar that I started late last fall from tap water and the leftover apple pomace from our cider pressing. Pomace is just fancy vocabulary for the solid remains of the fruit after the juices have been pressed out and collected. When I say that I made the vinegar, I am of course exaggerating. Actually, I only set the ingredients in place, and let the volunteer acetobacillus microbes do all the real work. I gave the bacteria about seven weeks to do their job.

From a glass jar with a one-gallon capacity I got almost 7 cups of a very light colored, slightly cloudy, and apple-scented vinegar. I probably could have gotten more if I had put less pomace and more water in the jar. But in all likelihood, it would probably have been weaker vinegar too. When I talk about the strength or weakness of the vinegar, I'm referring to the level of acidity. Acetobacillus needs something to live on other than water. In this case it would be the residual sugars remaining in the pomace. (Cores and peels saved from apple for apple pie would work even better, most likely, since they would contain more sugars.) Less pomace to more water would have meant less food for the microbes. When I started this experiment, I filled about 60%-75% of the jar with coarsely ground pomace, and filled the rest with our well water.


While I don't have an incredibly precise measurement of the acidity in our homemade vinegar, I know it's weaker than three different store-bought varieties. The picture above shows the litmus test results for our homemade apple cider vinegar, compared to rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, and distilled white vinegar. (My husband's a science geek, which is why we have litmus test strips lying around our house.) I think you can see, even in this picture, that the right-most square on the cider vinegar strip is a little lighter than those for the other three vinegars. Each of the store bought vinegars came in at a clear 2 on the litmus scale, though the red wine vinegar might be just slightly weaker than the rice wine vinegar and the distilled vinegar. Our homemade apple cider vinegar reads as a 3 on the scale, indicating lower acidity.

What difference does the acidity level make? Well, if I wanted to use this vinegar for pickling things, it might become very much an issue. To ensure food safety, one needs a standard level of acidity in the pickling solution. Standard vinegars usually register at 5% acidity, and are diluted according to the pickling recipe. On the other hand, I could easily adjust a vinaigrette recipe to balance the lower acidity of this homemade vinegar. In terms of taste, our homemade vinegar is light and pleasant, with a moderate apple flavor.

The thing about this vinegar is that it's raw and contains live acetobacillus bacteria. That means that there's at least a decent chance that the acid levels will increase gradually, even though the solids have been removed. If I wanted to stop this process, I'd have to cook the vinegar to kill the bacteria. But right now I'm content to let the vinegar do its own thing. I'll test the vinegar again in a few more months. If the acidity level changes, I'll post an update.

We're not eating too many salads right now in the depths of winter. But I look forward to using this homemade food on the early spring salads of the year. Now that I know that we can make this vinegar from the by product of our cider pressing - for almost no additional cost or effort - I'll be making more of it after our next pressing.

Related post:

Following Up Some Experiments

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the idea that you are using stuff that would normally have no further use (beyond compost) - the pomace. But if you want stronger vinegar you might think about replacing the water in your "recipe", partially or totally, with some of the fresh cider that you pressed. Actually, vinegar will happen with just the cider, and no pomace - and very good it is, too.

I discovered your blog just a few weeks ago, and have been having great fun going through your archives. Thanks.

Kate said...

Anon, thanks for stopping by and letting me know you're enjoying the site. Now, there's probably no way to word this without sounding very snippy, but I'm going to say it anyway. Please read this with the gentlest mental voice you can muster on short notice:

If you had any idea how much work went into producing the apple cider, it would be perfectly clear why we don't spare any of it to make vinegar. Honestly, the stuff is treated like liquid gold around here. It's an amazing amount of work for an astonishingly small quantity of cider. If we had to do it more than once per year, we probably wouldn't do it at all! The memory would be too fresh.

Anyway, the point was to get the "cider" vinegar without giving up any of the precious cider. But I don't doubt for a moment that what you say is correct. Thanks again for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

I rather thought that was the reason, although I have never made cider myself. A very frugal use of pomace, in any case.
Una - (forgot to add my name last time)

Anonymous said...

I read where you were trying this experiment back when you started it. Since I had some apples on hand, I decided to try it myself using the peels and cores. It has been about a month and my results look very similar to yours so far. Thanks for the follow up. I enjoy reading your blog.

Anonymous said...

If you don't have litmus strips available, you can make you own: boil chopped purple cabbage in water for 20-30 minutes. The juice/broth has natural litmus indicator properties. You can use the juice itself, or soak some paper and let it dry. Something porous like white construction paper, or newspaper, will work best. Cut into strips. To get a chart that works with it, test something that you KNOW the acidity/alkalinity of, like purchased vinegar (2.4), distilled water (7, neutral), and baking soda (8.2)
Or see http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/properties-of-vinegar.html#phv for a pH chart for various items.

I love your site, I found it searching for how to make deviled bones. I may put a link on my website. (http://www.theprovidenthomemaker.com)

Anonymous said...

I had Heinz Natural ACV. It does not say anything about to be pasteurized.
Could this kind of provide me the health benefits?
I live in a smaller town and it's really really hard to find various companies or a lot less popular products.
Also see my webpage > Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits

JillyFlorio said...

Awesome. I roughly followed your lead and just bottled up my own apple pear cider vinegar. I let it sit out a week and it's done. I used the cores and soft spots that i wasn't going to use in my dehydrator. Then i strained it all and tossed the mush the remained in my compost!

It tastes very delicate and is nicely fragrant. I mixed some with water to drink as a switchel.

I mentioned your great article in my forum here - http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/768824#Post768824

Thanks for the idea! Love your site. I am all about the experimenting too. :-)

jill
frugal living at BellaOnline.com