Malt Vinegar

[crupp]

All,
I always seem to end up with about a half gallon of beer when I keg. If it’s a similar beer, I’ve been blending together in growlers, 1 and 3 gallon carboys. The plan was to add some bugs to them to see what happens, but I started thinking about making my own vinegar. How difficult would it be to take this one gallon carboy full of beer and turn it into vinegar?

[Bugeater]

At the earth hippie co-op grocery stores and a few other places you can buy "Mother of Vinegar". This is basically just a bunch of active acetobacter bugs. Just add that to the beer and let it happen. Handle this with the same precautions as you would when making any other sour beers so you don't contaminate everything.

Another approach is to buy one of those high priced vinegars that are not pasteurized. These will also have the same active bugs.

Wayne

[crupp]

Thanks, Bug!
Any idea how long the process takes? The beer's already fermented, so I can't imagine that it will take that long...any thoughts?

[Moby]

Sunset magazine has a decent explanation on how to make vinegar.

http://img4.sunset.com/static/pdf/OneBlock_Vinegar.pdf

[crupp]

Great article. Thanks, Moby!

[blinddog]

Not to poop on your parade but... I believe that malt vinegar is made from unhopped beer. I think that the bitterness may clash with the sour, like a hoppy lambic.