Homemade wine vinegar - Update

[wdonovan]

Got the book and the mother. Since the mother was of cider vinegar and I want pretty pure Burgundy vinegar, I made a batch of my own mother. You need 25% mother to start the whole thing rolling and I didn't want that much cider in my finished vinegar so I made a batch, let it go well to completion (1 month) and used that batch as my mother. My homemade mother used 50% Burgundy ($20 Drouhin), 25% water, 25% mother. After a full month, I got a very strong vinegar without much character. Good enough for the first batch of mother. I then used 25% of this, 25% water and 50% Burgundy to make a finished batch. Using the theory that I would have to check progress and prevent it from going to completion to preserve the Burg flavor, I checked it in 8 days. It has a very nice Burgundy vinegar flavor, just a little weak. No alcohol left, it's definitely vinegar. Just a little dilute tasting. I'll let it go to 14 days and taste it again. I think I'm on the right track though. Will update next week.
Walt Donovan