# Honey vinegar



## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

great label.....how big of a bottle is that and what do you plan on selling them for........I have a 6 gallon batch of sourwood mead that is about 8% alcohol..... do you think I could add a little mother from some apple cider vinegar and turn it to vinegar?........


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

hipbee said:


> great label.


Thanks. My ‘marketing manager’ (fiance) designed it.


hipbee said:


> ....how big of a bottle is that and what do you plan on selling them for.


It’s 5 fl oz. The marketing manager and I are still haggling about the price. It’ll be somewhere between $4 and $6.


hipbee said:


> ......I have a 6 gallon batch of sourwood mead that is about 8% alcohol..... do you think I could add a little mother from some apple cider vinegar and turn it to vinegar?........


If you’d rather have 6 gallons of vinegar.


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## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

well I went kind of crazy with my mead making this year so I have 30 gallons of mead aging right now that I cant legally sell, and it will take me awhile to drink all of that I am thinking of turning some of that into something I can legally sell!(sure cant turn it back into the 80 lbs of honey I harvested)
P.S. I checked out your website and I am a big fan!
I just recently got CNG certified so if your ever in east TN I would love for you to come inspect my apiary(finding someone to come inspect seems to be the hardest part of the whole process!)


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

hipbee said:


> I am thinking of turning some of that into something I can legally sell


Be careful if you plan to sell it or, I suppose, even if you plan to consume it yourself. It needs to be 5% acetic acid. If it’s below about 4.5% it may be illegal to sell (and may spoil). If it is much above 5.5% it can be unpalatable.



hipbee said:


> P.S. I checked out your website and I am a big fan!


Guess who designed that?



hipbee said:


> I just recently got CNG certified so if your ever in east TN I would love for you to come inspect my apiary(finding someone to come inspect seems to be the hardest part of the whole process!)


It surely was a chore. A local farmers’ market requires it….so I went ahead a ‘bit the bullet’.


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## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

so I guess with an 8% alcohol mead I will have to dilute a little to get 5% acetic acid? 
should I dilute befor or after I add the mother?
and how long do you age your honey vinegar?
from what little I have read so far it seems like it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the mother to convert all of the alcohol to acetic acid.
soory to hound you.... I guess I should go buy a book on vinegar making:scratch:
thanks for the info 
P.S. I go down to lula to visit don pretty often(looks like your pretty close), let me know if you are ever in need of a CNG inspection.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

hipbee said:


> so I guess with an 8% alcohol mead I will have to dilute a little to get 5% acetic acid?


If you plan to sell your vinegar you need to have a means to measure the acidity. If you start guessing and are wrong and someone gets sick from spoiled vinegar….


hipbee said:


> and how long do you age your honey vinegar?
> from what little I have read so far it seems like it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the mother to convert all of the alcohol to acetic acid.


Considerably longer. If it is actually 8% alcohol, I'd expect 6 - 9 months. If your alcohol content is double digits (I know you said 8% but how sure are you?) it can take even longer. You may also want to think about acetobacter nutrition. Meads don’t usually contain very much in the way of food for bacteria.


hipbee said:


> I guess I should go buy a book on vinegar making


I have read a couple along with some extension bulletins. In addition to hours of reading I have had much trial and error (seems like mostly error) to reach a point where I’m comfortable that my process and testing methods are reliable.


hipbee said:


> P.S. I go down to lula to visit don pretty often(looks like your pretty close), let me know if you are ever in need of a CNG inspection.


I haven’t met Don, but know of him. Lula is probably about 25 - 30 miles away. We may bump into one another…...


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## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

Thanks for the info Dan.....I have been making mead for 6 years so I'm sure I can make vinegar after some studying. You have saved me from just going in half ****ed and pouring vinegar into some mead I read a brief article online that made it sound even simpler than mead making! Can you suggest any good books on the matter?


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

'Vinegar' by Lawrence Diggs is a pretty good introduction to vinegar making.
I'm sure you won't have a problem making vinegar but I just wanted to caution you about getting it right. I've seen youtube videos that made it look simple but they really don't give you enough information to do it safely. Maybe they actually do it the way they say but when I tried their methods my vinegar was nowhere near 5% acidity. 
Good luck to you


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Get a book or do a little online research... vinegar-making is pretty easy with basic meadmaking skills. Like most things it's about sanitation, cleanliness, quality ingredients and time. Alternately, while it's not strictly cricket, mead makes for great barter!


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