I know there are a lot of Homebrewers around here. I was curious if anybody went to the next step.
I have a friend who is a somewhat adventurous homebrewer, trying to ferment all kinds of stuff. Some of it good, some of it okay, and most of it real bad. It occured to me most of them are bad because of excess of flavor. But that kind of flavor seems like it could make a hearty vinegar. Does anybody here have experience trying it?
Another thing if anybody knows. What is the alchohol limit for a Vinegar culture to grow? I’ve always thought a Bourbon or scotch Vinegar sounds really good, but hundred proof probably isn’t very friendly to the little guys. How much would I have to dilute it if I bought some culture and threw it into some Wild Turkey?
I haven’t tried vinegar, but I have gotten to the step right before it.
For a while, I was working with yeast culturing – growing the little buggers on homemade slants. It worked for a while, but I had a yeast starter culture that I thought was good end up being bad. Fermentation went okay, but I ended up with a beer that had the right flavor, but yech. I had it in carboy for a few months and had considered getting the bacteria to turn it into vinegar. A friend said, “It’s not that bad,” so I bottled the stuff and gave it to him.
Homebrewing is an act of love and craft. Even if it is bad (and this is the only bad beer that I’ve made (knock on wood), I don’t like to toss stuff.
I have a chronic problem with my sake brewing that I get a lactobacillic contamination in the sake. It sours the stuff (pH to 3). I have taken to using calcium carbonate to raise the pH to neutral. I also use it to bring mead out of the low pH. Not acetic acid, but sour.