To make wine into good vinegar, you have to add a bacterial culture. You can try to get what’s called a Mother of Vinegar — a cloudy clump of cells that develops in vinegar — or you can get a live culture, called acetobacter, from a store that sells wine-making supplies. You also can go to a store and look for unpasteurized vinegar that has particles in it. That’s acetobacter.
Save up enough wine to start a good batch. Combine 1 part vinegar culture to 3 parts wine to 1 part distilled water in a clean glass container (a crock with a spigot is handy). Cover the top with cloth or a loose lid to let air in while keeping bugs out. Then let it sit in a quiet spot for a month or two.
It should develop a mother, a big, floating cloud. When the mother drops to the bottom, the vinegar is ready. Pour off the vinegar and bottle it. Save the mother to start the next batch. Clean the crock well, gather more wine and start another batch, returning the mother to the crock.
— Kathleen Purvis
The Charlotte Observer
