Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar

Making ACV is easy, inexpensive, and kinda makes you feel like a kitchen magician. I found a lot of recipes, but I really wanted was an approachable guideline. So I wrote it!

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How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar (from whole apples), adapted from directions listed in Simone McGrath's book.

1. Acquire materials. You will need:

Several half-gallon wide mouth mason jars. I worked with about a bushel from my harvest for the ACV and used thirteen jars for this. Woodman’s is an employee-owned Wisconsin-based store, so I get all my jars there. Stickin’ with the mission!

Good knife, cutting board and big bowls.

Cloth. Like cheese cloth, bandanas, flour sac towels, something like that.

Rubberbands.

Homebrew pH testing strips.

Chlorine-free water.

Apples ;)

2. Get to chopping. I looked through all the apples and separated the eaters, or unblemished fruits, from the rest of the gloriously scrappy ugly apples. I cubed up the scrappy ones and let them brown. Technically in the recipe I used as inspiration, it recommends washing the apples first. This is counterintuitive. Yes, I spot cleaned some with warm water and a rag, but mostly they remained unwashed. What you want and need to make ACV is right there on the surface and in the bruised brown parts! Those are you starting cultures; that’s the part that smells all boozy and delicious! Please don't wash that away.

3. Make your batches. Place apple pieces in the mason jars. It should fill the space, but I realized the ideal would be about three inches from the top of a half-gallon jar. This is because next you fill the jars with non-chlorinated water, but only to the widest part of the jar. The ACV needs oxygen, and it’s gets this from having as much surface area as possible. Now, it is important to keep the apple pieces submerged in your water. Otherwise the batch is prone to hosting unwanted microbes—we’re being selective here: just Acetobacter strains and yeast please! My solution? Go to the thrift store and purchase a distasteful number of shot glasses to be used as weights in the batches. Cover with cloth, like a bandana or cheesecloth, and secure around rim with a rubber band. Viola! No, there’s more.

4. Babysit your batches. They are alive! It’s not only fun to interact and witness the batches change over time, but it seems respectful to the tradition of making ACV by being in community with the cultures you are fostering. A bit esoteric, but true. There are a lot of variables at hand here, like the air temperature and fructose content in the apples. But you should start to notice bubbles in a matter of days. This is a great sign! It means you didn’t mess anything up!

5. Use your senses. What do the batches smell like? What color is the host liquid? How about the fruit? Is anything new forming yet? The chronology is a bit like this: the batches bubble and smell like hard cider because that’s what they are, then the bubbles subside and the boozy sweetness is replaced by acrid dry undercut with sugar which means the pH is actively changing, then a mother of vinegar (MOV) starts forming on top and the scent gets really sharp. You’re getting closer!

6. Next steps in processing. So your batches have been hanging out from anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months (again, a lot of variables here). The apples pieces have given a lot of their color to the host liquid, your fermenting space is smelling real vinegary these days, and there’s a MOV on the batch that looks thick enough to handle. Congrats; you’re in the clear. Time to get the apple pieces out. For me, I lined up the jars that seemed ready (see criteria above), got out new sterilized jars, a huge bowl, a plate with a lip, a large mesh strainer, and compost buckets. With shallow pool of ACV waiting on the plate, I reached my clean hands into a jar, took out the MOV and shot glass (you’re done with this bit of equipment now), placed the MOV on the plate, and strained the apple pieces out of the ACV into the large bowl. Apple pieces sorted with the mesh strainer went in the compost, and I decanted the bowl of ACV into the new sterilized half-gallon mason jar. On average, two original jars worth of ACV now fit into a single jar. Add MOV, cover again with cloth, and secure with rubberband.

7. Monitor the ACV. Using homebrew testing strips, check the ACV either daily or weekly (warmer temperatures or cooler temperatures, respectively). When pH is between 5 and 6, it’s done!

8. Finalizing and storage. You can now do a final strain through a coffee filter to remove the MOV and any fine particles that might be hanging out. Now you’ve got options: keep the MOV out and pressure can your batches for reduced health benefits but prolonged shelf-life, keep the MOV out and store with a lid in a cool dark place or fridge for greater benefits, or leave the MOV in the ACV and keep refrigerated for both maximum benefits and longest shelf-life. It’s your prerogative.

There you have it! Use your ACV for cooking, cleaning, remedy crafting, the works ;) Be well.