I didn't get any replies, so I changed the title. I'd like to hear some
opinions from people that make vinegar and possibly from some biochemists.

"Fred C. Young" > wrote in message
news:H5ttd.459589$wV.297785@attbi_s54...
> A couple of years ago I started using left over wine for making vinegar.
I
> have had good results until a few months ago. One of the jars developed a
> gelatinous layer on the top of the vinegar. I thought that must be the
> "mother". It didn't smell good, but I thought it was only the mother that
I
> was smelling and the vinegar would still be fine. I've added wine and
> additional mothers have formed in different layers. In other words, the
> mothers have stratified within the vinegar with vinegar between the lower
> layers.
>
> Besides smelling offensive, the vinegar isn't good. I'm throwing it out,
> but I would like to know what happened. Some of the information I have
read
> on making vinegar describes the mother as what I have. When the vinegars
> were good, there was no evidence of this jelly like cap on the top of the
> vinegar.
>
> Apparently a bacteria started growing that wasn't desirable, but it formed
> the characteristic mother. I had the vinegar stored in a cupboard in the
> kitchen. I had cheesecloth over the top of the jar. I am wondering if
the
> temperature may have been too high and the undesirable bacteria liked it
> better than the aceto-bacter aceti. The temperature is kept around 70
> degrees F.
>
> Any ideas on what went wrong and how I can prevent it from happening
again?
>
> Fred
>
>
>
>