Hello Fred
Glad to meet someone that appreciates vinegar!
My latest batch of vinegar has a thick grayish pink fuzzy (appears dry)
layer on top and smells very rough very little vinegar aroma. I guess it
went bad somehow and will pitch.
I am looking for a small barrel for vinegar. I would love to know how they
make the real balsamic. I understand it can take 12, 25, 50 years. The
white trebbiano grapes are cooked after they start fermenting to concentrate
the flavors. The vinegar ends up very dark. I don't know much more. I
can't see waiting 12-50 years but it does sound interesting.
Sarge

"Fred C. Young" > wrote in message
news:AVIud.178729$V41.26882@attbi_s52...
>
> "Sarge" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I seem to have the same problem with my vinegar making. When my batch
of
> > vinegar got a pungent smell I started some other batches in parallel.
> They
> > also have the scum on top but they have the expected vinegar aroma not
the
> > pungent aroma.
> > I have no idea why the one batch smells pungent and noone has been able
to
> > explain it.
> > I figure I left it too long and the vinegar turned into something else
or
> I
> > didn't get enough air into it and some anaerobic bacteria beat out the
> > mother.
> > I am trying to make a balsamic style vinegar. Is there any Italians
from
> > the region that make balsamic vinegar that can comment?
> > Sarge
>
> Hello Sarge,
> My vinegar has been great until this batch. I have never seen the
"mother'
> before. There is always a lot of sediment in the bottom and a slight scum
> on top, but no layer of the gelatinous substance. It has a beautiful,
but
> sharp nose. Sometimes when we have friends over for wine, we end up
tasting
> vinegar samples to see how they are when made from different wines. I had
> some that I made with a full bodied zin. The zin was originally very
good,
> but tannic. I cellared some of it too long. It didn't get oxidized
> tasting, the balance was just terrible. The vinegar from it had a very
good
> flavor.
>
> When you start the vinegar, you have to have a fairly low alcohol content
> (I'd guess about 12%) or you need to add water to lower the concentration
> because the aceto bacter doesn't tolerate high levels of alcohol. The
first
> time I made vinegar, I used a sample from a bottle of wine that had turned
> to vinegar. The wine wasn't very good, so I corked it and set it aside in
> the cellar. About a month later I was dumping it out and it smelled and
> tasted like vinegar. Then I started adding wine.
>
> I'd like to learn about the balsamic vinegar, too. So far, I buy the
> vinegar from Modena that is available in the grocery stores, but I'd like
to
> get a couple of small wood containers to use for making my own vinegar
with
> left-over wine.
>
> Fred
>
> --
> Remove _nail to reply
>
>