Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother added to water

[City-Chickee]

Hi there! Reading through all the posts that say to add about a tablespoon to a gallon of water for flock health, and I'm trying to figure out where to get it...where does everyone buy their apple cider vinegar with mother? Looking online and the only reasonably priced place I have found so far was Walmart, but it's not carried in store so I'd have to order and have. it delivered

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Usually any kind of health food store, co-op, or fancy grocery store (like Whole Foods) will have it.

 

[glib]

If you have access to apple drops, or "deer apples", or anything else an orchard can give you for near free, all you need to do is crush them and let them sit, making sure only that the juice covers the crushed apples, and that the vessel (glass best, but plastic OK) is covered. Because frankly buying ACV for chickens can become expensive quickly. The juice becomes ACV (good for you too), and you can use the crushed, fermented apples as a starter to ferment feed.

 

[lazy gardener]

Walmart: Heinz

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I see it in grocery stores that aren't even fancy grocery stores, like Piggly Wiggly, Cains and Winn Dixie, over by the pickles. You can add acv to regular applejuice and grow your own; you don't have to keep buying it.

 

[pdirt]

I see it in grocery stores that aren't even fancy grocery stores, like Piggly Wiggly, Cains and Winn Dixie, over by the pickles. You can add acv to regular vineagar and grow your own; you don't have to keep buying it.

Adding raw ACV to regular vinegar won't make more ACV. It just doesn't work that way...regular vinegar is already vinegar and can't become some other vinegar. It will flavor the regular vinegar with an ACV flavor and it might even sprout a new mother if left open to the air, but what is happening in that case is the mother is further fermenting the ACV you added. This will happen with regular raw ACV...just leave the cap open for a while.

You can however, make more ACV by adding a splash of it to some apple juice, juice without preservatives. Unpasteurized even better. Put the juice and ACV in a wide mouth quart, half gallon or gallon jar, cover with cheesecloth and leave it undisturbed in a warm, dark place for 2-6 months.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Yeah that's what I meant to say. Don't know why I typed add acv to regular vinegar.
Thanks for pointing that out. Post corrected.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Adding raw ACV to regular vinegar won't make more ACV. It just doesn't work that way...regular vinegar is already vinegar and can't become some other vinegar. It will flavor the regular vinegar with an ACV flavor and it might even sprout a new mother if left open to the air, but what is happening in that case is the mother is further fermenting the ACV you added. This will happen with regular raw ACV...just leave the cap open for a while.

You can however, make more ACV by adding a splash of it to some apple juice, juice without preservatives. Unpasteurized even better. Put the juice and ACV in a wide mouth quart, half gallon or gallon jar, cover with cheesecloth and leave it undisturbed in a warm, dark place for 2-6 months.

To make apple cider vinegar you must first convert the sugar in the apple juice into alcohol or hard cider in the absence of Oxygen. For this step you will need apple juice, sugar, a clean jug, wine yeast and an air lock. After the sugars are converted into alcohol the next step is to add acidic bacteria (mother) to your hard cider. Then in the presents of Oxygen let the acidic bacteria ferment or eat the alcohol giving off the waste product acidic acid. The alcohol has now been changed into acidic acid or vinegar. The word vinegar is Latin for sour wine. You can even make vinegar out of Moonshine, Vodka or Rum using mother of vinegar. This vinegar is called "White Distilled" vinegar. To greatly speedup the process pump or circulate large amounts of pure Oxygen through the hard cider to increase the growth rate of your mother of vinegar culture. However after your hard cider has become vinegar your mother of vinegar culture may die if the vinegar becomes to acidic. (15% or more) At any rate you will be left with a rather disgusting blob floating and hovering in your hard cider jug that will remind you of, The Blob from Outer Space that Ate Cincinnati.

If you notice an army of tiny little worms swimming and crawling in your ACV don't panic and toss the whole thing out. This is normal for ACV. This is also the reason that ACV intended for human consumption is first Pasteurized and filtered before being bottled and sold. Vinegar worms squirming and crawling on your plate or fork do not a good dressing make for a tossed salad.

 

[pdirt]

Adding raw ACV to regular vinegar won't make more ACV. It just doesn't work that way...regular vinegar is already vinegar and can't become some other vinegar. It will flavor the regular vinegar with an ACV flavor and it might even sprout a new mother if left open to the air, but what is happening in that case is the mother is further fermenting the ACV you added. This will happen with regular raw ACV...just leave the cap open for a while.


You can however, make more ACV by adding a splash of it to some apple juice, juice without preservatives. Unpasteurized even better. Put the juice and ACV in a wide mouth quart, half gallon or gallon jar, cover with cheesecloth and leave it undisturbed in a warm, dark place for 2-6 months.

To make apple cider vinegar you must first convert the sugar in the apple juice into alcohol or hard cider in the absence of Oxygen. For this step you will need apple juice, sugar, a clean jug, wine yeast and an air lock.  After the sugars are converted into alcohol the next step is to add acidic bacteria (mother) to your hard cider.  Then in the presents of Oxygen let the acidic bacteria ferment or eat the alcohol giving off the waste product acidic acid.  The alcohol has now been changed into acidic acid or vinegar.  The word vinegar is Latin for sour wine.  You can even make vinegar out of Moonshine, Vodka or Rum using mother of vinegar.  This vinegar is called "White Distilled" vinegar.  To greatly speedup the process pump or circulate large amounts of pure Oxygen through the hard cider to increase the growth rate of your mother of vinegar culture.  However after your hard cider has become vinegar your mother of vinegar culture may die if the vinegar becomes to acidic. (15% or more)  At any rate you will be left with a rather disgusting blob floating and hovering in your hard cider jug that will remind you of,  The Blob from Outer Space that Ate Cincinnati.

If you notice an army of tiny little worms swimming and crawling in your ACV don't panic and toss the whole thing out.  This is normal for ACV.  This is also the reason that ACV intended for human consumption is first Pasteurized and filtered before being bottled and sold.  Vinegar worms squirming and crawling on your plate or fork do not a good dressing make for a tossed salad.

Yes, you can make ACV the way you just explained. I've got some brewing in that method right now. I also have some made the simpler way...just leave apple juice open to the air. The apple juice will convert to alcohol whether or not oxygen is present. But it will only turn to vinegar with air present. The way you explained will turn the juice completely (or near so) into alcoholic cider first, then when you remove the airlock it will start turning into vinegar. Doing away with the airlock just mixes those two processes rather than separate them.

I think the two step process results in a better/stronger vinegar, better for cooking. But the one step process will make a decent, weaker vinegar in the same time period. Good enough for salad dressing or putting in your chicken's water,

As for the "vinegar eels" they do not need to be filtered or nor does the vinegar need to be pasteurized. The tiny worms are harmless, but undesirable by most folks. Some people raise them for tropical fish food. I once asked Bragg's (makers of the most popular unpasteurized ACV) if their vinegar ever contained vinegar eels. They said they have a number of processes in place to assure the eels don't grow in their vinegar, since they neither filter or pasteurize their vinegar,

 

[glib]

agree. apple cider starts with a pH of 3.3, and so long as you don't let flies in you will get vinegar no matter the method. ACV has a pH of about 2.5.