Apple cider vinegar is one of the easiest beginner fermentation projects you can do at home, and you can use any part of the apple. If you’re making a big batch of chunky applesauce and coring lots of apples, great, use the cores to make vinegar! Cores, peels, and whole apples can all be used to make your own vinegar. Use it for cooking, salads, or as a hair rinse.

All you need are apples, water, sugar, and a splash of vinegar, preferably unfiltered and with the mother or liquid culture. A vinegar mother is the floaty bit that you’ll see in some vinegar, especially apple cider vinegar, and it helps to kick-start the fermentation process. This is a two-step process as you’re fermenting the apples into alcohol before turning to vinegar. You can use alcoholic apple cider to make vinegar, but I prefer starting with whole apples. This is adapted from the Noma Guide to Fermentation.

This process is just about the same for any fruit vinegar – this year I made white mulberry, redcurrant, apple, cherry pit, and blackberry vinegar all using this process. It’s a good way to make use of windfall apples as long as you’re careful to remove any bruised parts.

If you have lots of apples to use up, try making a honey apple pie, whip up your own unsweetened applesauce, or make some easy baked apples.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Apples: these can be full apples, cut into pieces, or apple peels, cores, and cut-offs. The vinegar pictured was made with windfall apples.
• Sugar: like most fermented foods, while it is possible to make with honey, it’s less reliable (so I don’t write that into recipes). I use organic plain or cane sugar.
• Vinegar: to help get things started, you add a bit of already made apple cider vinegar, preferably unfiltered. You want to get a bit of the mother in there if possible.

Step by Step

Step 1: add the apples and sugar to a clean glass jar and top with water to cover. Stir well to dissolve the sugar.

Step 2: add a weight at the top and cover tightly with a tea towel. You should see fermentation (bubbling) starting after a few days.

Step 3: keep in a cool, dark place for about a month, stirring every once in a while.

Step 4: strain the solids.

Step 5: transfer the liquid back into a clean jar and cover to ferment for another month.

Step 6: your vinegar should be ready, and smelling strongly of vinegar. Decant into a bottle and store.

Recipe Notes

Sterilise the jars you use for the vinegar either with the oven method or running through a hot dishwaser before use.

Be sure to cut out any bruises or buggy bits in the apples before use. The amounts can be halved if you prefer to make one smaller bottle of vinegar.

The amount of liquid in the jar will naturally decrease over time as it evaporates, so you won’t end up with a full two litres of apple cider vinegar. I usually get about a litre and a half (about six cups) but it depends on the humidity level and temperature.

You’ll almost definitely get something that looks like a kombucha scoby on your vinegar. This is good, and normal, and something we like to see! That’s the mother, also known as a vinegar scoby.

Anything can be used as a weight, just like you would for something like sauerkraut. A non-porous stone that’s been boiled or run through the dishwasher, some kind of small dish that can fit in the jar, or a purchased fermenting weight. Apples that are exposed to air will form mould.

Sometimes fruit flies can get in to the vinegar and that’s perfectly fine. You can fish them out, make sure the jar is covered more tightly, and let it continue fermenting. If you hate the idea of it then make sure you use several layers of a tightly woven cloth and check that it doesn’t have any small holes in it. They’ve only gotten into one batch I’ve ever made.

How to Store

Apple cider vinegar can be frozen, but there’s no need. Like any other vinegar, it lasts ages if stored correctly. Keep it in a glass bottle in a cool, dark place for months.

Expert Tips

• Don’t reduce the sugar: if you’re thinking that you don’t want to consume too much sugar and you’re one to reduce it in every recipe you try, don’t. The vinegar needs to feed off the sugar and if you reduce it, there won’t be enough ‘food’ present to turn into a high enough alcohol content to become a strong vinegar.
• Be patient: this is a long-term recipe and something that you can stick in the cabinet and essentially forget about. Give it enough time to turn into real vinegar before bottling.
• Keep an air flow: the vinegar must be covered with something that lets air in, so don’t use plastic or a tight-fitting lid.
• Try more fruit types: stick with apples, or do a mix of other fruits like apples, pears, plums, berries, or things like grape seeds.

More Fermented Recipes

Sourdough Rye Bread
Fermented Cashew Cream Cheese
Einkorn Sourdough Bread
Honey Oat Sourdough Bread