everyone welcome back today we are
making apple cider vinegar and I know
there are tons of videos out there
online about how to make apple cider
vinegar and like I said in the pine
apple vinegar video a lot of them are
wrong and it's not wrong misleading or
perhaps they don't really understand the
science behind how cider vinegar is made
so I thought I'd do apple cider vinegar
pretty much the same as we did with the
pineapple vinegar video I'm going to
start out by juicing these apples
okay so what I have here is just over a
liter of apple juice it doesn't matter
what kind of apples you use use whatever
is available to you whatever is local
whatever is close whatever is at the
bottom of your fridge and you need to
use up and you want to juice them and if
you don't have a juicer that's fine if
you look at the pineapple video I just
use the blender you could use a blender
you could use a food processor
ultimately it's probably best to start
with just juice with as little pulp as
possible in it if you use a blender or
food processor
the pulp is going to be in it that's not
a problem it will settle out during the
first part of the process which is using
yeast to turn the sugars into alcohol
here's why I don't like most videos that
talk about how to make apple cider
vinegar making vinegar is a two-step
process you need an anaerobic step an
anaerobic step which is the first step
which is happens in the absence of
oxygen you're using yeast to convert
sugar to alcohol that step has to be
done first then the second step is
aerobic and we'll get to that in a
minute realistically at this point I
could put this bung on the top with an
airlock and the yeast that is naturally
occurring on the apples will start to
ferment you don't need to add anything
to this the yeast will start to ferment
they'll drive all of the oxygen out of
here through the airlock this will fill
up with carbon dioxide as soon as it
fills up with carbon dioxide the yeast
will start working faster and within a
day or two most of the sugar will be
gone and it will be replaced with carbon
dioxide alcohol and some flavors that
the yeast throw off here's something
that I'm going to tell you to do instead
instead of allowing the yeast that
occurs naturally on the apples to start
to work I would use a beer yeast a wine
Easter champagne yeast get them in a
little packet like this it doesn't take
very much to get the process started and
here's why first of all it could take
five or six days before the natural
yeast sort of builds up enough steam to
get fermenting so timewise this will
happen almost you know within hours
within five or six hours you'll start to
see some action in the airlock second
thing is the natural yeast you don't
know how flavorful it's going to be beer
yeast wine yeast or champagne yeast you
know that it's going to give off the
right flavors that you want never use
bread yeast bread yeast is definitely
not the right flavor profile it throws
off certain chemicals certain esters
certain alcohols that give a really sort
of strange taste of the whole whole
thing and the third thing is that the
natural yeast doesn't have the ability
to convert enough of the sugar into a
high enough alcohol amount as soon as
the alcohol amount gets up to like one
and a half percent by volume the natural
yeast gives out it can't do anymore
whereas beer wine or champagne yeast can
go even higher it could go
depending on how sugar your apples are
up to about 12%
higher alcohol better vinegar down the
road so these are really cheap and you
only need about a teaspoon worth of
these there's enough yeast in there to
do 30 liters and we've got one liter so
I've probably added too much already
so give it a little bit of a swirl you
could do this in any container that you
could put a stopper in an airlock on you
could use a old wine jug an old wine
bottle you could I don't know I've got
these beakers I thought it looked cool
it's going to allow us to see the
fermentation happening very easily in
the next step fermentation lock-in and
you just add a little bit of water in
the top and that's it for the first step
we'll just leave this on the counter
five or six days you'll see the action
in the bubbler stop and you'll know at
that point that you have reached the end
of the first step so come on back in
five or six days so but a week has gone
by and the airlock has stopped bubbling
and we've converted pretty much all of
the sugar in here to alcohol in fact
that happened in probably the first two
or three days I left it for a few more
days just to make sure that everything's
settled out so at this point what you
need is a large open mouth container it
could be anything it doesn't have to be
a beaker like this as long as you can
cover it with a piece of cheesecloth and
I would suggest using a really good
cheesecloth not super market cheesecloth
the holes in that are too big and you
don't want fruit flies to get in because
they will be attracted to this so we
will take what's in here and there's a
layer on the bottom of sediment you
don't want to pour that in well that
smells good you know what you could pour
it in if you wanted to but you're just
gonna have to strain it out later so if
you can be careful try to leave it in
the bottom and that is really just Apple
sludge and yeasts
there you go
so let's give that a taste I would
encourage you to taste everything at
pretty much every step of the process oh
that's good
tart happily that'd be good just you
know cold sitting in the back yard
instead of a beer so at this point if
you've never made apple cider vinegar
before you've got a couple of choices if
you have made apple cider vinegar before
then you already have a mother that you
can add from your last batch but if you
haven't if this is your first time
making vinegar you've got a couple of
different choices to make and you can
just cover this with cheesecloth stick
it over there on the counter and forget
about it there is a Siegel backer which
is the the next process there is a Seto
bacter everywhere it's in the air it's
on the countertop it's on your body it's
on any fruit that you've got in your in
your kitchen it's all around us and that
acetobacter will eventually find its way
into here and start the next process
which is converting the alcohol to
acetic acid which makes vinegar a couple
problems with that I use the word
eventually because it could take two or
three weeks before it really starts to
get going the acetobacter that's in the
air isn't isn't in a high concentration
so it needs to get in there needs to
establish itself it needs to start
working and that could take some time
the second thing is you don't know which
strain of acetobacter is in the air it
could be a strain that gives a really
good flavor it could be a strain that
gives a really bad flavor so you want to
start it with a strain that you know is
going to give a good flavor I mean why
wouldn't you you eventually want to eat
this drink this use it in salads however
so you want it to taste good so you can
buy online a strain of acetobacter that
would make a really good mother
for this or you could just get raw
unfiltered apple cider vinegar from the
grocery store
the acetobacter or the mother is in here
and it has to be raw has to be
unfiltered unpasteurized and you just
put a couple tablespoons in this amount
and what's gonna happen is the
acetobacter in here is going to activate
it's going to start eating all of that
alcohol that we've produced in the last
part of the process and it will multiply
and over the course of about a week or a
week and a half you're gonna start to
see like a mat grow on top a sort of a
thick slimy mat and that is the mother
that's exactly what you want that is the
acetobacter working hard and so what I'm
going to do now is I'm just going to
take this I'm going to sit it over here
on the back counter out of direct
sunlight at room temperature and we'll
come back to this and see it well we'll
come back and we'll see it when it's
done
and so there you have it this has sat on
the back counter for probably three or
four weeks smells absolutely amazing and
it has a very healthy mother sitting on
top so I'm gonna pull the mother out and
I'm gonna hang oh the mother is really
slippery but it's it's fantastic and
since this is really healthy I'm gonna
use it almost right away in a couple of
other vinegar experiments so keep your
eyes out for those videos and now what
you have is is you have the vinegar and
there's some sediment on the bottom I'm
gonna try to leave as much of that as I
can behind you can filter it out if you
want to you don't have to you can leave
all of that in and you can use it it's
edible tastes fantastic
oh my
that is some good dinner excellent
vinegar
so just a little bit of sludge left in
the bottom pour that down the drain
don't need to keep that the mother I'm
going to break into two or three parts
and use in other vinegars and this can
just stay on the counter
now this apple cider vinegar is loaded
with probiotics and it is really good
for you thanks for stopping by hope to
see you again soon
you
