I farm very tiny animals and vegetables. The animals and plants that I grow can only be seen through a microscope! I’m talking about bacteria and yeast.
Making vinegar involves two major steps. First, yeast is added to apple juice to make hard cider. Second, a beneficial bacterium is added to the hard cider to make vinegar. I use a traditional method of making apple cider vinegar that I learned from Master Brewers in England.
The beneficial bacterium is “Acetobacter Aceti”, commonly known as “Mother of Vinegar”. This amazing bacterium converts alcohol into acidic acid. Acidic acid is what causes Vinegar to taste sour. These little bacteria also provide many other health benefits in our apple cider vinegar.
I have been growing a specific strain of Mother of Vinegar on our farm for over ten years. I store enough Mother of Vinegar left over from the current season to start next year’s vinegar brew. Our unique strain of Acetobacter bacteria that grows on our farm from year to year creates a unique and delicious Rockbridge Cider Vinegar.
The yeast that turns the sweet apple juice into alcoholic Hard Apple Cider is also very important in the process of making vinegar. But I’ll talk about those little plants in another blog post.