Apple Cider Vinegar at Home: Make Real Vinegar From Fresh Apple Scrap

Why Make Your Own Vinegar

Store bought apple cider vinegar costs a lot more than you would think for something you can make in a jar on your counter. A bottle that costs twelve to fifteen dollars at the health food store is literally a handful of apples and water if you make it yourself.

But more importantly, homemade vinegar is real. Most grocery store vinegar is a shortcut product. It is often made from industrial alcohol or diluted from white vinegar. Even the bottles that claim to be apple cider vinegar are sometimes filtered pasteurized or otherwise stripped of the living culture that makes vinegar useful beyond the kitchen.

Real vinegar has what people call the mother. It is a cloudy substance made of acetic acid bacteria and cellulose. It looks like a floating jelly disk. It is what makes vinegar alive. Pasteurized filtered vinegar does not have a mother. Homemade vinegar always has one.

This article shows you how to make real apple cider vinegar from apples or apple scraps using nothing but two stages of natural fermentation. You do not need any special equipment. You do not need to buy a vinegar mother culture. Wild bacteria in the air will do the work. You just need patience.

What You Need

You need three things. That is it.

• Apples. Any variety works. Harder apples with more sugar make stronger vinegar. Cider pressed from fresh apples is ideal. Apple cores and peels work too, provided they are from clean apples that have not been sprayed with wax or chemicals.
• Water. Tap water that has been left out overnight to let the chlorine evaporate, or filtered water. Chlorine kills bacteria. You want bacteria to multiply, not die.
• A glass jar. A quart or half gallon jar works fine. Do not use a metal container. The acid in vinegar will corrode metal and leach chemicals into your batch. Glass, ceramic, food grade plastic, or stainless steel are fine.

You also need a breathable cover. A coffee filter, a square of cheesecloth, or a clean paper towel held in place with a rubber band works perfectly. You need air to reach the liquid but you need to keep flies and dust out.

The Two Stage Process

Making vinegar is actually two separate fermentations happening back to back. You do not need to do anything special to switch from one to the other. One stage naturally ends when the other begins.

Stage One: Alcoholic Fermentation

Yeast bacteria consume the sugar in the apple juice and convert it into alcohol. This is the same fermentation that makes hard cider. Wild yeast on the skin of apples starts the process automatically.

During this stage the mixture smells fruity and yeasty. Bubbles rise to the surface. The smell is not sour yet. It smells like fermenting cider. That is correct. You are making alcohol right now even if you do not want to.

This stage takes about one to three weeks depending on how sweet the apples are and how warm your kitchen is. Warmer temperatures speed up fermentation. Cooler temperatures slow it down.

Stage Two: Acetic Acid Fermentation

Once the alcohol is present, a different kind of bacteria goes to work. These bacteria need oxygen. They convert the alcohol into acetic acid. Acetic acid is vinegar. The smell changes. The fruity yeast smell fades and the sharp tang of vinegar begins.

This stage is slower. It takes three to six weeks on average. In cool weather it can take up to three months. The bacteria multiply on the surface of the liquid and eventually form a thick floating mat called the mother of vinegar. This mat is not a sign of spoilage. It is a sign that your vinegar is alive.

How to Make It

Method A: From Fresh Apples or Cider

1. Chop the apples into pieces. You do not need to remove cores or peel. Leave the skins on. That is where the wild yeast lives.
2. Put the apple pieces in a glass jar. Fill it about three quarters full. Do not pack them down. Let air circulate between pieces.
3. Pour room temperature water over the apples until they are fully submerged. Leave about two inches of headspace at the top of the jar.
4. Cover the jar with a coffee filter or cheesecloth. Secure it with a rubber band. Do not put a tight lid on the jar.
5. Place the jar in a warm dark spot. Sixty to eighty degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. A kitchen counter out of direct sunlight works fine.
6. Stir the mixture with a clean wooden spoon once a day. This keeps the apple pieces from molding on top and spreads oxygen through the liquid.
7. Wait. After two or three weeks the bubbling will slow down and the smell will change from fruity to sharp. That is when the second stage is mostly complete.
8. Strain the liquid through a coffee filter or fine cheesecloth into a clean jar. Press the apple pieces gently to extract the vinegar. Discard the solids.
9. Bottle the vinegar in a clean glass jar with a tight lid. Store it in a cool dark place. The vinegar will keep almost indefinitely.

Method B: From Apple Scraps

If you save apple cores and peels in the freezer and add them to a jar when you have enough, the same process applies.

1. Fill a half gallon jar about halfway with frozen apple scraps. Thaw them first by adding room temperature water.
2. Fill the rest of the jar with water. Leave two inches of headspace.
3. Cover with a breathable cloth. Secure with a rubber band.
4. Stir daily. Wait three to six weeks until the vinegar smell is strong.
5. Strain, bottle, and store.

The scraps method is simpler but produces a weaker vinegar. It is fine for cooking and cleaning. If you want strong vinegar, use Method A with whole apples.

What to Watch For

Mold on top of the apple pieces. A thin white film on the surface is normal. It is a yeast layer that forms during alcoholic fermentation. A fuzzy green black or pink growth is mold. If you see colored fuzzy mold, toss the batch and start over. Do not try to scrape it off and continue.

Fruit flies. Flies are attracted to vinegar. If you notice fruit flies swarming your jar, the vinegar stage is active and that is normal. To keep the flies off, make sure your cloth cover is fine enough. A coffee filter stops them. A loose square of paper towel does not. You can also put a tight lid on the jar during the vinegar stage once bubbling has slowed, and open it once a day to stir and let fresh air in.

Weak smell. If the vinegar still smells sweet after six weeks, the fermentation is not complete. Give it another week or two and keep stirring. If nothing changes, the temperature may be too cold. Move the jar to a warmer spot.

No mother forming. Some batches never form a thick floating mother. This can happen if the apples had a thick wax coating or if the bacteria in your kitchen air are not active at the moment. The vinegar is still vinegar even without a thick mother. You can add a tablespoon of raw unfiltered store bought vinegar as a starter culture to help a new batch along, but it is not required.

Using Your Vinegar

Homemade apple cider vinegar is stronger and more complex than distilled white vinegar. It works well in salad dressings, marinades, cooking, and food preservation.

In pickling, it can be used as a vinegar base for quick refrigerator pickles. Because the acid level varies slightly from batch to batch, you cannot rely on homemade vinegar for safe water bath canning of low acid foods. Use a tested recipe with consistent acid levels for that.

You can use the mother itself as a starter for new batches. A tablespoon of active vinegar culture will speed up fermentation by about a week in each new batch.

Flavor variations are easy. Add a crushed clove of garlic, a sprig of fresh herbs, or a handful of berries to the jar during the last week of fermentation. Strain them out before bottling.

A Note on Health Claims

Apple cider vinegar has a reputation as a miracle health product. Some of that reputation is backed by small studies. Some of it is not. There is some evidence that vinegar can modestly affect blood sugar levels when taken with meals. There is evidence that it can aid digestion. What you will not find is convincing evidence that vinegar cures anything serious.

If you drink it, dilute it. One tablespoon in a glass of water is plenty. Drinking it straight can damage your tooth enamel and irritate your throat. If you have stomach issues or take medications, talk to a doctor before making vinegar a regular part of your diet.

The Bottom Line

Making apple cider vinegar at home is one of the easiest preservation projects you can do. It takes nothing but apples water and time. The result is a product that tastes better than store bought vinegar, costs almost nothing to make, and connects your kitchen to the apple trees in your yard.

The hardest part is waiting. You cannot rush vinegar. The bacteria work on their own schedule. Set a jar on the counter, stir it once a day, and check it weekly. When the smell is sharp and clean and the vinegar has a mother floating in it, you are done.

Store it in a cool dark place and it will last for years. Each new batch will ferment faster once you have a mother culture. You will have a starter that keeps producing and producing long after this jar is gone.

That is how you keep a skill alive. Not by repeating the same thing every year. By starting one batch and letting it teach you the next.

---

— C. Steward 🍎