Vinegar Help

[workingpoor]

I need some guidance with my vinegar making.

I started making both a red and white wine vinegar in the fall. My white wine vinegar formed a nice thick mother on top but I have had a lot of issue with my red. It never formed a mother on the top or the bottom really. Just got kinda oil slicky on top. I went away on vacation for a few weeks and came back to find my vinegar had evaporated significantly and had a bloom of green mold on top. I scraped off the green mold and it smelled like pungent vinegar. I siphoned off about two liters and filtered and pasteurized by bringing it to 150 degrees for 30 minutes as suggested somewhere on the internet. Now it doesn't smell like vinegar at all. In fact it smells more like a musty foot. I tasted it and it is bland and and has a lot of sediment in the bottom.

Any suggestions? It has been fermenting over 9 months in my basement. I am totally lost.

[grapeadmin]

You would have to toss that one and start over. Take some of the vinegar from the white one and add it to your new red one. Be extra careful to sanitize everything really well.

thanks
john

[RonF]

Hi,
I started making some red and white wine vinegar around about a month ago - with a vinegar starter culture and some red and white wine. It is kept in a warm dark place (not sure how warm). Not much is happening. Before it ends up like the first poster in this thread is there anything I can do to either help it along or save it?

Thanks

[grapeadmin]

Keep it warm and keep it covered. Hopefully soon you will notice a 'mother' covering the surface. If it does you are on the right track.

thanks
john