Vinegar from spoiled wine?

[countygrapeguy]

I bottled some wine a few months ago which seemed fine at the time, but now all bottles have heavy nail polish remover aromas (ethyl acetate I presume). I'm thinking that I can make it into red wine vinegar. Will a resultant vinegar have that nail polish smell still?

AFAICT the way to do it would be to dump the wine into a carboy along with some apple cider vinegar and cover the top with a cheese cloth. Anything else I should know/do?

 

[Rice_Guy]

I doubt that you would get rid of the ethyl acetate

not a lot lost in trying

 

[countygrapeguy]

Hrmm, maybe heating the vinegar would cause the acetate to evaporate

 

[BigDaveK]

AFAICT the way to do it would be to dump the wine into a carboy along with some apple cider vinegar and cover the top with a cheese cloth. Anything else I should know/do?

To increase your chances of successfully making vinegar from wine you need to take care of the sulfites. One way is to add 1/2tsp hydrogen peroxide per gallon. Another way, the one I use, is to vigorously stir the crap out of it for a couple minutes. Yes, adding raw apple cider vinegar will jump start the process. Also yes, the process needs air so cheesecloth or something similar will work. It may take a couple months. If you're lucky a mother will form that can be used in future vinegar making batches.

As far as the ethyl acetate is concerned, good luck.

 

[Sailor323]

Yes, you will have to neutralize the sulfites with H2O2 and you should use an apple cider vinegar with mother (Bragg's is one brand)