# Malt vinegar vs. Beer vinegar?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malt-vinegar-vs-beer-vinegar/499871>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 15, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malt-vinegar-vs-beer-vinegar/499871 "2009-06-15T20:23:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fandango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b5ac83/32.png) [@fandango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fandango)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malt-vinegar-vs-beer-vinegar/499871/1 "2009-06-15T20:23:27Z")

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What’s the difference between malt vinegar and beer vinegar? Beer vinegar is made from beer, and “malt vinegar is made from malted barely fermented into an ale”. One book decried malt vinegar as being unsuited for most cooking because it has an overly malted flavor, but a few pages previously said that beer vinegar is great with many foods because of its malty notes.

I gather that malt vinegar is normally unhopped, what about beer vinegar?

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**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malt-vinegar-vs-beer-vinegar/499871/2 "2009-06-15T20:49:06Z")

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Well, beer is usually hopped, so beer vinegar would be somewhat bitter, probably as much so as the beer you started with.

I’ve made vinegar out of beer, and it sure isn’t the malt vinegar that you get at fish & chips shops and pubs in the UK.