Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar

These are my instructions for making Cider Vinegar. I don’t remember where I got them, it could have been my Grandmother.

There are folks out there who make this procedure a lot more difficult than it has to be.  I figure there’s good reason to use special equipment and check this and that, but this is just the way I’ve always made it and it has worked well. Every. Time.

The easiest thing to do is to start with hard cider. That is cider that already has a 3-5% alcohol content. Its not common that you find cider like that around here, so I just use regular cider. Takes a little longer to make the vinegar but not enough to make a difference.

If you’ve got an abundance of apples, you can press your own juice and make your cider and then make the vinegar.

You’ll need apple cider, molasses and brewer’s yeast.

Use a one or two gallon glass pickle jar that has been cleaned and sterilized by pouring boiling water in it. Rinse well with the boiling water and then pour out all the water.

For each quart of cider you use, add 1/2 cup of molasses and 1/4 cup brewer’s yeast. Put the cider, molasses, and yeast into the jar.

Fill the container the rest of the way with pure water.
Leave the container partially open to the air. I usually place a double thickness of cheese cloth over the jar and then fasten the cheese cloth down with a rubber band.  Fermentation begins at once and usually within a week you will have vinegar.

Pour the clear vinegar into pint or quart jars and close tightly. Leave the sediment or lees in the bottom of the large jar and fill with fresh cider. The lees provide the yeast this time and each time you make cider now, you don’t have to add yeast.

There may come a time where the lees are not as rich with yeast as they once were and you will have to add more yeast. Just add the amount of yeast and molasses that you did at the first of this recipe.

I have also heard of apple cider vinegar being made with only the cider.  You put the cider in a sterilized gallon jar, cover with a cheese cloth and let it sit for 6 months. I prefer to make it using yeast and molasses.