Vinegar from skins

[RottenGrapeJuice]

Does anyone reuse their skins to make vinegar after their wine is complete? My grandma did this for years, so figured I’d give it a try. I added skins, water and sugar back into the bucket to bring the SG up to 1.08ish and pitched yeast. Only thing is now I’m reading that a 10-11% wine will likely make too strong of a vinegar, so may have to dilute it. Anybody know what the proper OG should be?

 

[BigDaveK]

1.045-1.055

If you're serious, a good book is "Homebrewed Vinegar" by Kirsten Shockey. She also has a couple good books on vegetable fermentation.

 

[RottenGrapeJuice]

1.045-1.055

If you're serious, a good book is "Homebrewed Vinegar" by Kirsten Shockey. She also has a couple good books on vegetable fermentation.

So sounds like to yield a 5-6% acid vinegar, you would need a 5-6% alcohol wine. I guess that makes sense given that I believe the chemical formula from
Ethanol to acetic acid is 1 to 1.

 

[BigDaveK]

From memory I believe the range is 5-9% but the lower end is more reliable for success.

I haven't used skins but I have made VERY nice vinegars using a portion of my berry wines. And if you're lucky enough to have a "mother" form then succeeding batches are easier to make.

And going further, later you can make a "shrub" - drinking vinegar - a mix of fruit (or herbs), vinegar, and sugar.

 

[Rice_Guy]

now I’m reading that a 10-11% wine will likely make too strong of a vinegar, so may have to dilute it.

There is no thing as too strong for vinegar. Yes distilled vinegar is diluted with water to make a “cheaper” retail product.
Traditional red wine vinegar would be made from 11 to 14% ABV wine and used as such since it is more stable.

 

[RottenGrapeJuice]

There is no thing as too strong for vinegar. Yes distilled vinegar is diluted with water to make a “cheaper” retail product.
Traditional red wine vinegar would be made from 11 to 14% ABV wine and used as such since it is more stable.

are you sure about this? Not at the fact that it’s made from red wine but that you simply let wine go straight to vinegar without any dilution. The almighty internet says that above 10% acid you’re getting into corrosive levels of acid that are for cleaning and not consumption. I’m just wondering if typically you take a 12% wine, let it go to vinegar and then dilute to a 7-8% concentration

 

[Rice_Guy]

The red wine vinegar at work was called 2x. All it really means is that if I had some for formulating a recipe I might start at 1/2 what a cook book said. ,,, And on the factory kettle level it still had to be measured against formula.

Lab bench seemed to be in standard HDPE gallon jugs. ,,, It really wasn’t anything special. The glacial acetic acid in a reagent bottle was a strong acid, but again spills were only “wash with water”

 

[RottenGrapeJuice]

I have heard that you need to be careful making vinegar in the same location as wine because of the acetobacters that are given off. Given that my house is not that big (and both vinegar production and MLF need to be in room temperature) I can’t realistically keep them that far away from each other. If the wine is under air lock, I can’t really see this being an issue. Thoughts?

 

[BigDaveK]

I have heard that you need to be careful making vinegar in the same location as wine because of the acetobacters that are given off. Given that my house is not that big (and both vinegar production and MLF need to be in room temperature) I can’t realistically keep them that far away from each other. If the wine is under air lock, I can’t really see this being an issue. Thoughts?

I make kombucha, vinegar, lacto fermented vegetables, and wine and have never had a problem. The little guys won't stay in their designated room no matter how much you plead or threaten. Following basic sanitation procedures should be good enough.

 

[Rice_Guy]

If I am in the micro lab and do a selective isolation for Acetobacter in pressed juice, I will find it. A lot of if it is a problem reflects the selective environment. Watch your oxygen!
The big risk running both products is in poorly cleaned porous tools, cracked plastic, rubber hoses, oak. If you can, do not use anything cracked for both products. Glass carboys are smooth so I would trust they are clean.

 

[QuiQuog]

Well well well, what do we have here? Another rabbit hole for me to explore. I think I can sacrifice a few bottles of wine for experimenting.

 

[RottenGrapeJuice]

Well well well, what do we have here? Another rabbit hole for me to explore. I think I can sacrifice a few bottles of wine for experimenting.

FOR SCIENCE!!!!……send me a sample

 

[QuiQuog]

If you can use hot peppers to make wine, and wine to make vinegar, can you use the wine and pepper skins to make vinegar, and then turn all of that into pepper sauce?
Anywho, last night I had a glass of apple wine, and a glass of cab, and put cheesecloth on what remained in the bottles. Maybe I'll get vinegar soonish.

 

[BigDaveK]

If you can use hot peppers to make wine, and wine to make vinegar, can you use the wine and pepper skins to make vinegar, and then turn all of that into pepper sauce?
Anywho, last night I had a glass of apple wine, and a glass of cab, and put cheesecloth on what remained in the bottles. Maybe I'll get vinegar soonish.

Interesting idea.

And don't count on "soonish". A couple months, maybe. And if there's kmeta in the wine that needs to be addressed - either shaking the heck out it to aerate or adding hydrogen peroxide. I've never used hydrogen peroxide, shaking has worked for me. You'll want to shake anyway to aerate, the acetobacter will thank you.

It's far quicker and easier to lacto ferment the peppers - peppers, water, salt and maybe 2 weeks. Peppers will taste great and you'll have the option to use on pizza, salad, sandwiches, etc OR you can put them in a blender for hot sauce.

 

[QuiQuog]

Interesting idea.

And don't count on "soonish". A couple months, maybe. And if there's kmeta in the wine that needs to be addressed - either shaking the heck out it to aerate or adding hydrogen peroxide. I've never used hydrogen peroxide, shaking has worked for me. You'll want to shake anyway to aerate, the acetobacter will thank you.

It's far quicker and easier to lacto ferment the peppers - peppers, water, salt and maybe 2 weeks. Peppers will taste great and you'll have the option to use on pizza, salad, sandwiches, etc OR you can put them in a blender for hot sauce.

For something that I put aside, a couple months is soonish enough. Thanks for the info about kmeta, I hadn't thought about that. I'll shake it up a bit. As far as quicker and easier, I also came to that conclusion after some thought. I was spouting ideas before thinking them through. I just removed all the peppers from my plants and intended to ferment them and make sauce when this thread caught my attention.