Adventures in Apple Cider Vinegar (from scratch!)

Recently there was a sale on apples and I decided to buy a few bags up and make applesauce. I LOVE making applesauce and not just because it is easy to do, but that is a post for another time. Whenever I make applesauce, I usually either just toss the scraps or compost them.

If I had chickens, I would feed the scraps and cores to them instead. I kept thinking there just has to be something else I can do with them and went searching for answers. I am always up for decreasing waste and stretching our dollar plus, I love trying my hand at any homesteading skills.

I went searching around the internet for a good, simple recipe and stumbled upon another blog that had what I was looking for: a recipe that wouldn’t require a PhD. to understand and follow for making apple cider vinegar. You can find the original article here (Thank you 17apart.com!). I followed along with their instructions. I mixed water and sugar together, submerged the apple bits into the liquid and weighed it down so everything would stay in place. The instructions say to leave it covered but out on the counter for a week to allow for fermentation to start. At first, I was concerned that it would start to stink in the kitchen. As much as I love apples, the idea of fermenting or rotting apples on my counter top kind of grossed me out. It was not until I checked it a week later that I realized I never once smelled anything from the bowl!

I was rather disappointed when I checked on it after the prescribed week’s time. It just looked like apple cores and peels in liquid. Granted, the liquid was not clear, it was yellowish like you’d see in apple juice. The other disappointment was that there were no real signs of fermentation. There were apple cores that were still very solid  in there. I was just about to turn and voice my irritation with the apparent failure and then it hit me: We keep our house much cooler than most people (60-65) and that would definitely make a difference on any fermentation. So instead of tossing it out as a lost cause, I decided to give it a stir, add a little more sugar (looking back at the original article, it occurred to me that I may have had more water than they did)  and put the towel over it again for another week.

Apple cider vinegar has many health benefits, too!

When I checked on it this last weekend, I couldn’t believe the change I saw! I could smell the fermentation and the color of the liquid had gone from a pastel yellow to a deeper lemonade color.  I started to get excited about learning something new (and hopefully succeeding!) as I grabbed the fine mesh strainer, jars, lids, and bands, and cheesecloth. In the original article, they had some mold on the top that they just spooned off. I did not have any mold except on the sides where the original water line was. I strained the apples and poured the liquid (with a heady, apple-fermentation scent that made me think of apple liqueur) into the jars. I placed the cheesecloth over the top before putting lid and band on. According to the article, the cheese cloth is placed first to allow for the vinegar to breathe and protects the metal from corrosion which makes sense to me. Fermentation requires breathing room and vinegar is extremely acidic! I stored the jars in the back of a cupboard and put a note on the calendar 6 weeks out. I really look forward to bringing this out later this year for some special event or recipe, not to mention the cool-kid points. 🙂

UPDATE: October 2014. We ended up using the vinegar for this year’s applesauce canning! Instead of a little apple juice or water in the bottom of the pot of cooking apple chunks, we used the vinegar and that made a big difference in the color and flavor of the sauce. Absolutely delicious! We saved the cores and skins to make another batch of vinegar up! LOVE the cycles of it all!