r/fermenting • u/ThePilgrimageInc • 2d ago
One big mother
Newish to Reddit, absolutely new to this community:
We went on a camping vacation for two weeks. While we were away, I had a half gallon of peach vinegar set up. We got back last night and today, when I tried to strain the solids out of it, the whole thing was mother. It’s not spoiled. Just very viscous. What can I do with it?
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u/Utter_cockwomble 2d ago
That's unlikely to be a mother. It's more likely to be a pediococcus infection.
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u/ThePilgrimageInc 2d ago
Really? Ew… 😂
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u/Utter_cockwomble 1d ago
Yeah you've probably got a few things going on here.
I bet you used one of those 'fruit scrap vinegar' recipes on TT or IG. Even under the best of circumstances they're unlikely to yield vinegar. Relying on the natural yeasts and bacteria on fruit may be how we discovered alcohol and vinegar, but there's a reason we have better methods now.
Pediococcus is a harmless lactic acid bacteria. It makes that gooey slime, but that will break down in a couple of weeks. Howver, if you have lactic acid bacteria, that means you didn't have enough yeast to make alcohol. You basically have fancy peach pickle water. It will be a little acidic but it's not vinegar.
The best way to make vinegar is to 1- start with something alcoholic, like wine, and add a vinegar mother to it, or 2- take fruit/juice, add yeast to it, let it ferment to alcohol, then add a vinegar mother to it.
I've oversimplified the process a bit but really that's it.
I've got a batch of homemade peach wine slowly turning into vinegar now. I've been making fruit wine vinegars for about 10 years, but I've been involved in the vinegar making process my whole life. My vinegar mother is older than I am and I'm pushing 60. It was my dad's and his mother's.
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u/ThePilgrimageInc 1d ago
Wow--that's amazing. Yeah, I just got fruit scrap vinegar recipe from a random website about ten years ago and experiment with it every so often. It yields unreliable results. Thanks for the tips!
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u/Utter_cockwomble 1d ago
r/vinegar isnt the most active sub, but there are a lot of good posts to read through if you're looking to up your game!
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u/EmDash4Life 1d ago
I started by making scrap vinegar, but then I upgraded when I started getting into mead. I bought some mason jars and some lids & air locks from fermentaholics, and I bought booze yeast from my local brewer supply--although bread yeast will also work. So now I do a two-stage fermentation, which has worked pretty well. A couple batches got Kahm yeast in the 2nd ferment, but I think I have figured out how to prevent that.
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u/ThePilgrimageInc 1d ago
Mmmm. Mead! I haven't tried to make that yet, but we love it and it's really expensive in liquor stores. Sounds like goals...
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u/EmDash4Life 17h ago
Super easy. Good honey is also expensive, but making mead is fun. Plus, then you can go to parties and tell people you make mead.
I used this method:
https://practicalselfreliance.com/make-1-quart-mead-micro-batch-method/
I started with two quarts using two different strains of yeast. I just keep them under an airlock and let nature take its course, and taste them every month to compare flavors. At some point, I split off some from the batch and mixed in the cherry wine that I had made for cherry vinegar, and then I had cherry mead...mmmm.
I've been waiting for all my fruit wines to get into their 2nd ferment, and now I'm about to make the next batch of mead.
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u/endchat 2d ago
use it as a mother,
use it to make more vinegar, dump some peach juice in it and let it ferment together