The making of vinegar

Vinegar could be made from almost anything, which contains sugar, starch or alcohol with the help of natural bacteria, the mother of vinegar. This is a natural biochemical process, where alcohol will be converted to acid.

The making of vinegar is so easy, that the method of preparing food and beverages with vinegar is known since ancient times. But the making of good vinegar, in a reliable and consistent manner, needs some more effort.

Bad vinegar has an acetaldehyde taste, smelling like thinner. This is not wanted for good and high quality vinegar products.
The occurrence of acetaldehyde shows, that the vinegar is not yet ready. It is also an reliable method to determine, if the conversion from alcohol to vinegar was done. Also most countries have a maximum content of alcohol allowed at the ready vinegar. So it is necessary to make a full conversion from alcohol to acetic acid.

Processing of raw material

First you should consider the following fact: the better fruits you take, the better vinegar you get. If you take fresh, full ripe fruits instead of frozen fruits or concentrate, the fruit wine or the cider will be of even better quality. The fruits you take should have a lot of sugar, to get most of alcohol from it for the vinegar making process.

The fresh fruits will be pressed, fermented and after this, the material should be fast cleaned to take the dead yeast away. The fresh and young wine will be cleared and then brought to the vinegar fermentation.

Our large scale submerged vinegar plants are constructed for a production with clean alcohol and a full conversion up to 15 % acetic acid. With a second step it is possible to work up to 20 % acetic acid. So there is a full economy for this system.

But back to the fruit wine and the high quality vinegar: Now you have to bring vinegar bacteria into the young wine, to get best results from the fermentation process.

Production processes

There are different methods to produce vinegar:

Pumping around process
The vinegar is pumped around beech chipping or beech lattices. The bacteria could grow on it and make the vinegar.

Submerged fermentation process
The bacteria are kept in a floating state inside the vinegar. An electronic controlled pump inject fresh air into the vinegar. Because of this method, the temperature in the tank could be controlled and this let you totally control the vinegar making process.

We have implemented the submerged fermentation process in our vinegar machine EA-LABU. We offer the whole range from home use units for small vinegar producers to large scale installations 75 thousand liters to 40 million liters of vinegar per year and unit.

Refinement of vinegar

After the fermentation process, between one and ten weeks, the vinegar is ready. The alcohol in the wine has become to acetic acid. Before you can sell the vinegar, you have to free it from the bacteria. If you make vinegar at home, you can simply filter the vinegar with a coffee filter. After this, there are many ways to make your vinegar better and give him a spicy aroma. For refinement look for our recipes.

Our company offers the full range of information about the processing. Use our contact form to request more information about vinegar and his use or to get information about seminars, training courses and advising.