How to Make Vinegar

Why, you may ask, do we have a section on how to make vinegar on a wine tasting website? It is a fair enough question. Well, besides the obvious connection that you make wine vinegar from wine, wine tasting often presents the opportunity to make your own vinegar easily. How? Well, if you are hosting or attending wine tastings frequently you will find that, unless you have huge drinkers over, you will often have excess wine after large tastings or dinner parties. While some wine will keep a while after being open, most goes downhill quickly. Rather than pour all that precious liquid down the drain, why not make it into something else useful which will last practically indefinitely? Yes, we are talking about vinegar!

Why should you want to learn how to make vinegar? Besides being a good use for left-over wine, if done right, when you make wine vinegar yourself it results in much better vinegar than you can buy in most stores! It's true. Most wine vinegars (with the exception of fine balsamico, which can be very expensive) are anemic, flavorless liquids that really only supply acidity and little of the flavors that a good wine vinegar should. For good dressings, sauces, marinades, basting mixtures and other uses, homemade vinegar is infinitely better than that pale and aroma-less stuff you buy in the market.

So whether you have excess wine left over from wine tastings and wine dinner parties or you just want to learn how to make vinegar regardless, read on. We will give you specific directions on how to make vinegar in a few different ways. Once bottled they will serve your kitchen well for years and even make great gifts if you bottle them nicely!

• Making Single Batches of Wine Vinegar in a Crock or Jug
  This is the simplest way to make wine vinegar when you first learn how to make vinegar. It is a single shot fermentation of a big jug or crock full of wine into vinegar. It is almost foolproof and takes a minimal of start-up materials.
• Making a Continuous Barrel Fermenting Wine Vinegar
  The ultimate way to make your own vinegar! With a bit more set-up you can have a continuous fermenting barrel or crock of vinegar which will continue to supply you with vinegar as long as you keep it up and keep feeding it wine. A bit more involved than the previous method but once you set it up it will give you years of service.
• How to Make Flavored Vinegars
  Some of the most interesting vinegars are flavored, particularly with fresh herbs. There are several types of herbs you can use to make a variety of specific vinegars. Here is how to do it. This works with vinegar you've made by either of the previous methods.
• Fun Bottling Ideas for Homemade Vinegar Gifts
  If you are just using your vinegar in your own kitchen, then you can bottle it in practically anything. But if you want to show it off or give it as gifts then here are a few tips on how to make it more presentable.

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