How to Make Vinegar from Scratch {Homemade Vinegar 2 Ways}

Last Updated on October 6, 2022

Did you know you can make your own vinegar? Homemade vinegar is an easy home fermenting project using fruit scraps or leftover wine that would otherwise go to waste. Want to try your hand at making something delicious while cutting waste and saving money? Here’s what you need to know about how to make vinegar from scratch.

WHY & HOW TO MAKE VINEGAR FROM SCRATCH

Vinegar is one of those kitchen staples most of us don’t realize it’s a snap to make. (Another is yogurt. Here’s why to try making homemade yogurt to save big bucks each year.)

Making your own vinegar is one of many savvy ways to go green in the kitchen. Since it’s usually made from food scraps that would otherwise go in the trash (or hopefully, the compost bin,) homemade vinegar is a brilliant way to reduce waste. Since you’re making it at home, you also haven’t shipped a heavy liquid from far away in a plastic bottle, another step toward zero waste living!

Cut waste while getting free pantry staples — what could be better??

If you’re curious about all the other yummy things you can make from food scraps, be sure to check out these uses for orange peels and 40 root to stem recipes. Or give banana peel tea a try.

Another advantage to making your own vinegar: Many commercial vinegars are made with GMO corn or even petroleum-based ethanol, so your homemade vinegar also lets you avoid Big Ag and Big Oil.

MAKING VINEGAR FROM SCRATCH: HOW IS VINEGAR MADE?

Vinegar is created when bacteria turn alcohol into acetic acid, the compound that gives vinegar its sour flavor.

As with other fermenting projects, there’s some wait time and a bit of attention involved. Though the hands-on time in making your own vinegar is minimal, you need to check on your homemade vinegar regularly to avoid mold and help the vinegar-making process.

The microbes on fruit scraps will get the fermenting process going, and you can speed it up by adding some of what’s called “the mother,” a gelatinous blob you sometimes find in the bottom of a bottle of unfiltered vinegar. That blob is actually where all the good stuff in apple cider vinegar is found, the beneficial microbes that make fermented foods so good for gut health.

Vinegar requires oxygen to form, so it’s wisest to ferment your vinegar in an open container, which also prevents jars from exploding when pressure builds up during vinegar making. Place a kitchen towel over the top to keep out dust and bugs.

Many cooks find the flavor of the finished product improved by leaving in the mother, though you don’t have to if you’d prefer a filtered homemade vinegar.

SUPPLIES YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE HOMEMADE VINEGAR

You probably have most of what you need to make your own vinegar in your kitchen already.

1. A container. A jar or bowl made of glass or ceramic will work fine. Run it through the dishwasher before you begin making vinegar so you don’t introduce unwanted bacteria into your ferment. You can also get a vinegar crock with a spigot that allows you to take out vinegar without disturbing the mother, but it’s not essential.
2. Unchlorinated water. Chlorine inhibits fermentation, so you need to either buy unchlorinated water or use filtered water. Having a quality water filter is a smart green move anyhow. Who wants all those industrial chemicals in your homemade vinegar? (Or everything you drink! Here’s how to choose an effective water filter.)
3. Fruit scraps or wine without preservatives
4. Sugar
5. Unfiltered, unpasteurized cider vinegar or a vinegar starter from a fermenting supply shop.

METHODS FOR MAKING HOMEMADE VINEGAR

There are two primary ways to make homemade vinegar, producing somewhat different finished products. The first starts with fruit scraps, the second with leftover wine.

Apple scrap vinegar will taste different from apple cider vinegar, which, as you’d expect, starts with apple cider.

Most home wine-vinegar makers prefer red wine, which ferments more quickly and reliably. It’s best to use only one type of wine, so ferment red and white wines separately. If you’ve got some leftover wine no one seems interested in drinking, here’s a great way to use it up!

HOW TO MAKE VINEGAR FROM SCRATCH METHOD ONE: HOMEMADE APPLE SCRAP VINEGAR (OR FRUIT SCRAP VINEGAR)

Apple scrap vinegar is probably the most popular homemade vinegar, since apple cores are easy to come by even if you’re not making a big batch of homemade applesauce or delicious dehydrated apples.

Any type of fruit scrap or less-than-perfect piece of fruit can be turned into gourmet-quality vinegar. You can try raspberry, pear, pineapple, plum, or peach, whatever’s in season. You can even harvest edible crab apples, which are everywhere in fall. Sweeter fruits will make stronger vinegar than tarter ones.

You won’t believe how easy this is! All you need to do is submerge your fruit scraps in water and wait.

You’ll need about 2 cups of apple cores and peels or other fruit scraps. which you can save up in the freezer if you’re not going to have them all at once.

It’s probably best not to use the cores of apples you’ve nibbled — and gotten bacteria from your mouth on. If you’re saving cores for apple scrap vinegar, best to use a knife to cut off the fruit you want to eat.

Try to use organic, unsprayed fruit, since pesticide residues aren’t good for you or for the microbes you’re encouraging in your homemade vinegar.

A mix of sweet and tart apples will create the best flavor.

How to Make Vinegar from Scratch with Apple Scraps

Ingredients:

• 2 cups filtered water, room temperature
• 2 cups apple cores and/or peels, coarsely chopped.
• 2 tablespoons organic sugar

(Optional, but recommended: 2 tablespoons raw unfiltered cider vinegar)

Directions:

1. Dissolve sugar in water. Place apple scraps in a clean wide-mouth glass jar or bowl and cover with sugar water.
2. Stir well.
3. Be sure apples are completely submerged to prevent mold. A fermenting weight or smaller glass jar can help keep the apples below the water’s surface.
4. Cover with a cloth and secure with a rubber band.
5. Store in a dark, room temperature place like a kitchen cabinet.
6. Stir at least once per day for a week.
7. Your fermenting apple scraps should start to bubble and smell like alcohol.
8. After 1 to 2 weeks, your fermentation should start to darken and taste like vinegar.
9. Strain out the solids and compost them. A strainer lined with cheesecloth works well. Pour liquid into a clean jar and cover with a clean cloth,
10. Stir every few days for an additional two weeks to a month, until it achieves a flavor you like.

**Important: Bottle your homemade vinegar only after ALL bubbling ceases. Open it regularly after first bottling to be sure there’s not built-up air pressure.**

Notes:

You may see a gelatinous mass (the mother) form. Don’t panic — or throw it out! That’s a beneficial blob of microbes that will make your next batch of vinegar brew up faster and possibly taste better.

HOW TO MAKE VINEGAR FROM SCRATCH METHOD TWO: MAKING HOMEMADE WINE VINEGAR

Ever forgotten a bottle of wine and discovered it turned to vinegar in the meantime? That’s how easy it is to turn leftover wine into vinegar. If you have wine sitting around that’s no longer good for drinking, make yourself a batch of homemade wine vinegar.

The cheapest wine is probably of better quality than what’s used in your typical wine vinegar, so your homemade wine vinegar should be more delicious — as well as pretty much free!

How to Make Vinegar from Leftover Wine {Homemade Wine Vinegar Recipe}

Important: Be sure to use wines without any added preservatives. Sulfites are often added to wine to inhibit microbes from turning wine into vinegar. When we’re trying to make homemade vinegar, we want to turn the wine into vinegar, and those preservatives work against our efforts.

If you have some leftover wine and sulfites are listed on the label, leaving the wine open to the air will help them to dissipate. Pouring the wine out into a bowl and stirring it every so often should help move the process along.

The next issue to contend with is getting the right percentage of alcohol. To turn wine into wine vinegar, you need to wine that’s about 6% alcohol. Many wines will already be about 6%; check the label to find out.

Bolder wines may have a higher alcohol content that needs to be lowered. If you have a 12% alcohol wine, for example, you’ll need to dilute it with an equal amount of filtered water.

Instructions:

1. You can try making wine vinegar in the bottle simply by leaving a bottle with around half the wine open in a warm place. Cover the top with cheesecloth to keep out flies. In a few weeks, your wine should turn itself into vinegar.
2. To speed the process along, add raw apple cider vinegar (with the mother) at a ratio of about 1 part vinegar to 4 parts wine. You will only need to do this for the first batch; a mother will form during the fermentation process that you can use in subsequent batches.
3. Pour wine and vinegar into a clean jar and cover with a dishcloth or paper towel to keep out dust and insects. Secure with a rubber band.
4. Keep in a warm, dark place for about two months. A skin will form at the top, which is the mother growing. Check your vinegar’s flavor by using a baster to carefully suck some vinegar from the bottom of the container without disturbing the mother. Or if you have a vinegar crock, use the spigot to pour yourself a sample.
5. It should taste more like vinegar than wine. If the vinegar flavor hasn’t fully developed, allow to ferment an additional two weeks before tasting again.
6. If your vinegar is too strong, you can dilute it with a little filtered water.
7. When your wine vinegar achieves the desired flavor, pour about 3/4 of the liquid into a clean bottle.
8. Now you can refill your fermenting vessel with more wine and start the process all over!

Feel free to experiment with different varietals of wine, or sherry, hard cider, or even beer, which makes malt vinegar.

HOMEMADE VINEGAR STORAGE TIPS

You can strain your finished vinegar through a double layer of clean, thin cotton if you like the vinegar to be clear, but if you choose to leave in the sediment, it’s harmless. If you’d like to prevent your homemade vinegar from becoming cloudy, you can pasteurize it by bringing it to 170 degrees F for 10 minutes on the stove. Allow to cool, then bottle.

Pasteurized vinegar won’t produce a starter for your next batch, though, so you may want to keep some unpasteurized in the refrigerator for when you want to make more.

Store your homemade vinegars in a cool, dark place for up to three months. To store it longer, keep it in the refrigerator.

Want to infuse your vinegars with herbs? Add cleaned fresh herbs like tarragon or rosemary (or foraged herbs like elderflower or spruce tips, which make excellent infused vinegars) and allow to steep for 2-4 weeks.

Safety note: The acidity of homemade vinegar varies more than purchased varieties, so it’s generally not recommended to use homemade vinegar for food preservation.

TROUBLESHOOTING FROM SCRATCH VINEGAR

Making your own vinegar involves a fair amount of unpredictability. You can follow the same recipe again and again, and you’ll probably get homemade vinegars that all taste a bit different. That’s part of the fun!

Some home-vinegar makers have reported weird smells coming from vinegar crocks during the fermentation process. Don’t assume you’ve failed — give the process a bit more time and a delicious vinegar might result in a few weeks.

CARING FOR ‘THE MOTHER’

Once you’ve gotten going on making your own vinegar, you’ll have your own vinegar ‘mother’ at the ready for making more. Your mother will need feeding with a cup or more of water and wine. If you don’t want to make more vinegar right away, the mother can be refrigerated in wine for later use.

Spent mothers will become rubbery and solid at the top. Peel away the rubbery top layers and discard as they appear. The younger layers beneath it are still good for beginning new batches of vinegar.

USING HOMEMADE VINEGAR

How to use your homemade vinegars? They will add lively flavor to soups, marinades, salad dressing, and so much more!

Homemade wine or apple vinegars also make lovely homemade gifts.

Have you ever tried making vinegar from scratch? How did it go?

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How to make vinegar from scratch photo credits: TARIK KIZILKAYA, congerdesign

Susannah

Susannah is a proud garden geek and energy nerd who loves healthy food and natural remedies. Her work has appeared in Mother Earth Living, Ensia, Northern Gardener, Sierra, and on numerous websites. Her first book, Everything Elderberry, released in September 2020 and has been a #1 new release in holistic medicine, naturopathy, herb gardening, and other categories. Find out more and grab your copy here.