Gluten Free Malt Vinegar – a new product of Supreme Vinegar About me and my passion for vinegar I’m Reggie Smith, owner of Supreme Vinegar LLC, a specialty fruit and wine vinegar manufacturing company in Bensalem, PA just outside of Philadelphia. In the past, I have mainly concentrated on fruit vinegars and mothers of vinegar to help home vinegar hobbyists … Read More
Tips on aging vinegar
For those who have made their own vinegar, or have bought some they want to age and refine, aging vinegar is the easy part though patience is a must. Vinegar can age almost indefinitely if stored right. Traditional Chinese vinegars are aged 3-6 years, traditional Balsamic is aged from 12-25 years and sherry vinegar can be aged for similar long … Read More
Mother or SCOBY?
This is a quick post to clarify some confusion I have run into from a lot of home fermenters. The rise of the popularity of kombucha has brought the notion of the SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast ) to name the thick gelatinous mass that sits on top of kombucha fermentations. Before this the more widely known and … Read More
From Alegar to Sarson’s: A History of Malt Vinegar
Read the full book on the history of vinegar, Vinegar, The Eternal Condiment available on Amazon! My article on the history of malt vinegar appeared in the 113th issue of Petits Propos Culinaires published by Prospect Books. Download below. Please cite as: Smith, RD (2019). From Alegar to Sarson’s: A History of Malt Vinegar. Petits Propos Culinaires, 113, 95-119. Additional … Read More
A history of the Canadian vinegar industry
The following is taken in part from my book on vinegar history, Vinegar, The Eternal Condiment available on Amazon! When people here in the US think Canadian vinegar one might have an amusing notion of a barrel of maple vinegar fermenting in some snowy, remote lodge in Northern Ontario. While Canada is obviously a leader in maple vinegar production (though … Read More
Recipes to make your own malt vinegar
Malt Vinegar (using liquid or dry malt extract) Dry or liquid malt extract (type can be personal preference though barley based ale extracts approximate traditional recipes) Water Brewing yeast (ale or lager) Live mother of vinegar Mix quantity of extract with water to adjust the specific gravity for 6% alcohol by volume (roughly 1.05). For liquid yeast, pitch in directly. … Read More
The History of Blacks in Vinegar Making
Read the full book on the history of vinegar, Vinegar, The Eternal Condiment available on Amazon! Vinegar has been made for millenia—surely as long as wine and beer. Vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid made by special bacteria that transform the alcohol into this new compound using oxygen. The first records are from ancient Babylon but later vinegar … Read More
Sherry vinegar makers consider their own balsamic competitor
As reported in this article from Diario de Jerez (Google translation here) the sherry vinegar makers and the certification bodies of Spain are planning on introducing a thick, sweet sherry vinegar that would be a competitor with balsamic vinegar. Made from sherry vinegar and grape must from grapes like Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel, the new vinegar cannot be called ‘balsamic’ … Read More
Vinegar Aging and Value
Read the full book on the history of vinegar, Vinegar, The Eternal Condiment available on Amazon! Besides raw material, one of the big differentiators between premium and regular vinegars is the aging process. This can range from 2 months for Balsamic of Modena IGP to 6 months for basic sherry vinegar to 12 years for Gran Reserva Sherry or 25 … Read More
The ambivalent status of French Vinegar
French vinegar is good, but can it stand out? If there would be a country responsible for the development and refinement of vinegar in modern Europe, it would be France. Through the pre-Revolution corporations in many cities, especially the vinegar “capital” of Orléans, the Western traditional method of vinegar making matured from the 14th to 18th centuries. Though France was … Read More