Apple Cider Vinegar 2024
A bright vinegar made from windfalls and a bit of patience. This batch blends the crab apples with the mellow sweetness of Bramleys, transformed first by wild fermentation and then slowly soured with a mother and plenty of air. Golden and cloudy.
- Style
- Traditional raw apple cider vinegar
- Batch size
- Small press, home-scale
- Method
- Unfiltered & unpasteurised
The Story
What is Apple Cider Vinegar?
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is what happens when you let apple juice ferment twice: once to cider, then again to vinegar. It’s been used for centuries — as a preservative, a tonic, a cleaner, and even a home remedy (with varying degrees of effectiveness and questionable flavour memories).
Raw vinegar like this one still has the “mother” — a tangled web of acetic acid bacteria that continues to ferment and develop the vinegar over time. It’s cloudy and full of life.
What We Made
This batch started with a blend of about 25% crab apples for tartness and 75% Bramley apples for body and juice. Pressed in a small hand-cranked press, it came out tasting fresh and sharp.
We let the wild yeast from the apple skins take over, fermenting it naturally into a light cider. Once that finished bubbling away, we introduced a vinegar mother and let it breathe — giving the acetic acid bacteria time to convert the alcohol into vinegar. Nothing fancy, just apples, time, and a bit of microbial magic.
Production Notes
Ingredients
- Freshly pressed apples: 25% crab apples, 75% Bramleys
- Natural wild yeast (from the fruit)
- Vinegar mother (from a previous batch)
- Time and oxygen
Fermentation Process
Primary fermentation: The juice was left open to natural yeast and fermented into dry cider over several weeks.
Acetification: A vinegar mother was added, and the cider was left in a wide-mouthed container exposed to air, where it slowly turned to vinegar over a few months.
Bottling: Once the vinegar tasted sharp and mellow, it was bottled with some mother left in for future batches or added probiotic charm.
Aging Potential
Raw vinegar will continue to evolve in the bottle. It may become even sharper or develop sediment and more mother. That’s normal — and kind of the point. It’s still alive and kicking.