Cubit's Organic Living

Cubits Organic Living - Cubits Seed Company - Rare Heirloom and Natural Seeds for Edible Gardens

  • shop
  • etsy
  • press
  • about
  • work with us
  • contact
  • events & retail

Scrappy Apple Cider Vinegar from Scratch

February 3, 2012 by admin

Back in the fall when we were pressing cider we also starting another fermenting project and it might be my favourite project yet.

When you press 8 bushels of apples you are left with a ton of pulp.  While we composted about half of it we decided to turn the rest into apple cider vinegar.

After leaving the scraps in a closed tub for two days we transferred them to a carboy.

You can do this on a much smaller scale, one jar or crock at a time.  We just had so much waste so we went big. Probably too big.

Once your vessel is full of apple, add a little sugar.  The amount does not seem to be important, it’s just to kick start the fermentation.   Next fill the container with water to cover all the scraps.  If you are using a crock, you can weigh down the floating apples with a plate as seen here on 17aparts tutorial and here in a Somona Garden’s post.

Cover the opening with cheese cloth to keep dirt out but to allow wild yeasts to help out.

After a week or so, strain out the apple scraps.  We switched to a much smaller and more manageable container size at this point since we started out too big.   This picture shows how it immediately started forming a new yeast mother.

We added an airlock at this point, but you can keep using cheese cloth. I tucked it away in the basement  and then waited another 6 weeks.  Now we have the best vinegar I’ve ever tasted.  We bottled it up and have been using it for everything, marinades, salad dressing, cleaning the house, washing my hair.  It’s great and quite possibly the most useful stuff we’ve ever made.

Filed Under: how to, recipes Tagged With: apple cider vinegar, fermentation, how to, wild fermentation

Comments

  1. Brenda says

    February 3, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    Laura, I am gobsmacked….How wonderful, soooo jealous of your stash of ‘homemade’ cider vinegar. I am bookmarking this and making myself some this fall. Wow.

    • admin says

      February 3, 2012 at 4:11 pm

      Do it Brenda! This was so easy (heavy but easy) and I’m shocked at home great it is. All my friend’s kids like watching the fermentation as well, a very fun science project.

  2. Kirstin says

    February 3, 2012 at 4:05 pm

    How wonderful! I actually just started a batch of this not that long ago. It is currently hiding up in my cupboard. I can’t wait to test it out!

    • admin says

      February 3, 2012 at 4:13 pm

      You’ll love it Kristin. I can’t wait to hear how your grain milling is going. So ambitious in my kind of way :)

  3. Keeping It Indie says

    February 3, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    Gorgeous photos and wonderful project. I with I cooked more so that I actually had a use for vinegar but wow – looks great!

    Happy Friday – Brandi

  4. Sweet Posy Dreams says

    February 3, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    Wow, how impressive! I learned a lot from your blog today!

    Stopping by from Etsy Blog Team

  5. Joel says

    February 3, 2012 at 9:01 pm

    Laura,

    as always your photos are so pretty and really easy to follow. Also love your seemlingly endless supply of rockin’ bottles. :)

    Joel

  6. Sean says

    February 3, 2012 at 11:55 pm

    I’m the founder/moderator for Punk Domestics (www.punkdomestics.com), a community site for those of use obsessed with, er, interested in DIY food. It’s sort of like Tastespotting, but specific to the niche. I’d love for you to submit this to the site. Good stuff!

    • admin says

      February 4, 2012 at 12:52 am

      Thanks for the invitation Sean. I love your site and I’ll submit it in the morning.

  7. Mary says

    February 4, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    I know EXACTLY what you mean when you say it is the best apple cider vinegar you have every tasted. So glad to see yours turned out well and get a peek into your process! Keep in touch!

  8. Hollie says

    February 4, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    I did this too, around the same time as you. It’s amazing. I can’t wait to make more next year.

  9. Caro says

    February 9, 2012 at 4:27 am

    This is do great!! I’m inspired! I made peach vinegar once when I was 10 (after having spent a week at King’s Landing historic summer camp in NB) and it was amazingly yummy even to my 10 y o palate. Now I want to do the grown up version you’ve described!

    • admin says

      February 17, 2012 at 8:58 pm

      I’ve been to King’s Landing and I wanted to go to the camp so bad when I was a kid! now I’m jealous.

  10. Angie says

    February 16, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    Beautiful! Great job! I only know one other person who makes their own Vinegar. I entered mine in the fair last year and won a blue ribbon. Have you tried other vinegars?

    • admin says

      February 17, 2012 at 8:56 pm

      Congrats on your blue ribbon Angie! I haven’t tried any other vinegars yet. A good friend has been making citrus vinegars, mostly for cleaning, and I thing that’s the next project.

  11. Judy says

    February 17, 2012 at 10:59 am

    what is the difference between this (acv) and “apple vinegar” on the other two sites you suggested? seems to be the same method but different results..love your site and will now be a follower!

    • admin says

      February 17, 2012 at 8:55 pm

      Hi Judy,
      I was wondering the same thing and couldn’t find a definite answer. I think it’s just a personal choice what people are calling it. I went with Apple Cider Vinegar as mine is the by-product of making apple cider. Glad you enjoyed the post.

  12. from maggie's farm says

    March 8, 2012 at 5:30 am

    Congrats on being featured in Blogher, AND on an amazing simple and straightforward post. I’m mos’ def’ going to be making me some homemade vinegar this fall. THANKS!

  13. jasonalves says

    July 15, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    Does the length of time determine if this is to become vinegar? This is basically the method I used to make hard apple cider, although it was ready in 3 weeks.

    Jasonalves.blogspot.com

  14. TeeDubYeah says

    May 14, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    Just to answer a few questions about Apple Cider Vinegar or Apple Vinegar and about the length of time it takes.
    Basically, Vinegar is always made by fermenting Alcohol. So the process goes like this.

    Apple scraps are fermented by yeast into alcohol (at this point you have hard cider) >> Then the Alcohol in the cider is then fermented into Vinegar using either yeast or bacteria (if my memory serves me correct its almost always a bacteria at this point)

    So there is no difference between Apple Vinegar and Cider vinegar, its just a name.

    Also Jasonalves is correct in the though that the time would determine if you had Hard cider or Vinegar(Kinda) Because if you are making hard cider in a closed system with an airlock it will ferment to cider but would probably not ferment to the point of vinegar because it would need to be opened and exposed again to the alcohol fermenting buggies to go further. (the sugar eating yeast would be all dead at that point)

    Thank you for the post about making vinegar, I have been fermenting for a while and never done vinegar. I’ve done tons of research but never made it. Its on my short project list.

    If you are all interested in some additional reading Might i suggest these two books.
    http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fermentation-Flavor-Nutrition-Live-Culture/dp/1931498237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368538534&sr=8-1&keywords=wild+fermentation
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Fermentation-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368538534&sr=8-2&keywords=wild+fermentation

    Also check out my fermented blog at fermentthis.com

    • admin says

      May 14, 2013 at 2:42 pm

      Thanks so much for your awesome answer!

    • justin says

      September 18, 2013 at 4:27 am

      Should I first ferment with an airlock or can I just cover my bucket of cider with a cheesecloth and let it go?

      • admin says

        September 18, 2013 at 2:14 pm

        either way. We used an airlock just because we had one it it made it less likely to spill.

  15. TeeDubYeah says

    May 15, 2013 at 5:43 pm

    Your post inspired me, I started a batch of ACV last night. I’ll let you know how it goes.

  16. JayMay4 says

    August 13, 2013 at 9:55 pm

    My daughter and I juiced tons of Lodi apples in July straight into a carboy and covered it with cheese cloth. It smelled like vinegar for a long time…but now it kinda stinks and there is 3 inches of foamy stuff on the top and about 2 inches of what I would think is mother on the bottom. YIKES! What do we do next??

    Or did we ruin it somehow?

    thanks

    • admin says

      September 18, 2013 at 2:30 pm

      Sorry, I missed your comment. It sounds ok to me. How did it work out?

  17. Linda says

    November 6, 2013 at 9:41 pm

    I have 2 week old vinegar and there are little blobs of green mold floating on top! Can it be saved? I see a nice mother growing in the bottom I’d hate to throw it away. I’ve scooped out the mold and put the vinegar in a new container. Thanks for any advise.

Trackbacks

  1. Winter Preserving Ideas (For Experienced and New Preservers) « Well Preserved says:
    February 3, 2012 at 10:43 pm

    […] Cubit’s shares a beautiful post on how to make apple cider vinegar from scratch – this is on the must-do list for next year to-do list for […]

  2. Homemade Cider Vinegar - cidercake.com says:
    March 7, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    […] cruising the ethersphere I came upon a beautiful blog called Cubit’s Organic Living. It is: “an organic seed company … Specializing in high quality organic, rare and […]

  3. WellPreserved | WellPreserved.ca says:
    April 27, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    […] Cubit’s shares a beautiful post on how to make apple cider vinegar from scratch – this is on the must-do list for next year to-do list for […]

project 365: week thirty three: August 13th, 2011 – August 19th, 2011

project 365: week twenty five: June 18th, 2011 – June 24th, 2011

project365: week forty one October 8th, 2011 – October 14th, 2011

Archives

our favourites

Copyright © 2025 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in