APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

The best ACVs are organic, unfiltered and raw (unpasteurized). Ideally use organic or spray free apples. These are really easy to make even from scratch without a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), all that is required is apples and patience for fermentation.

This method with show you three methods to make ACV. Pick whichever suits you until you are a master maker. Saving you a fortune along the way and being way more sustainable with your food.

Method One – Make ACV From Scraps
This method uses scraps - peels and cores, the stuff you would usually throw away after eating. It takes around two months to complete dependent on time of year (Summer ferments are quicker than Winter – temperature is a factor).

Items:
A large bowl or wide necked jar
Apple scraps, the cores and peels from organic apples
A piece of cheesecloth / muslin for covering the jar to keep out flies and debris

1. Leave the scraps (core, peel) in to air to brown, then add the apple scraps to the jar and top it up with water.
2. Continue to add scraps for a few more days do not top the jar right up, there needs to be room – ¾ full is ideal.
3. Cover with the cheesecloth and put it in a warm, dark place. A water cylinder cupboard is perfect, or a warm cupboard.
4. The jar contents thicken after a few days, a greyish scum forming on top. Do not add any more scraps after this point. Leave the jar for approximately month to ferment.
5. After a month start taste-testing it. When it's just strong enough, strain out the apple scraps and bottle the vinegar.
6. If your vinegar is cloudy, it is the sediment from the apples and what's known as “the mother”. This is ok. If you don't like the cloudiness, straining through a double layer of muslin / cheesecloth ot paper coffee filter.
7. Leave to stand and this will clear.

Method Two – Make ACV From Whole Apples
This method uses whole apples, taking approximately 6 months to ferment.

Items:
10 Whole organically-grown apples
A glass bowl / wide necked jar
A piece of cheesecloth / muslin to cover the bowls

1. Wash the apples then quarter them keeping the core and peel.
2. Let the apples turn brown in air then cover with them with water in the bowl / jar.
3. Cover the bowl with the cheesecloth and leave in a warm, dark place for 6 months. Again, a hot water cupboard is ideal.
4. After approximately 6 months, there will be a greyish scum on the surface - this is normal. Strain the liquid through a double layer of muslin or coffee filter into a bowl. Place back into the wide necked jar, and leave it for another 4-6 weeks, covered with the cheesecloth.
5. If you leave long enough you will have a SCOBY form on the surface of the jar.
6. When the ACV is to your tasting, bottle for use.
7. Place SCOBY in jar with a cup full of ACV, add water. This is your SCOBY and starter for fast preparation of ACV.

Method Three - ACV From SCOBY
If you have done all of the above you will have been left with a SCOBY and starter this means making ACV in a much more quicker fashion.

Items:
10 Whole organically-grown apples or apple scraps
A glass bowl / wide necked jar
A piece of cheesecloth / muslin to cover the bowl / jar

1. Choose which ever version suites you best whether saving scraps or chopping whole apples.
2. ¾ fill a wide neck jar with apples and let brown.
3. Add SCOBY and starter then top up with water.
4. Cover with Cheese cloth . Muslin and leave to stand for 2-4 weeks (dependent on temperature and season).
5. Taste test and sieve the apples out and bottle when the taste suites you best.
6. The SCOBY may well have produced a daughter SCOBY now, save in a jar with a cup of ACV, topped up with water.
7. Keep SCOBY in a cool dark cupboard or a fridge. Ideally use it rather than having to feed it. Apple juice from a freshly squeezed apple or a table spoon of ideally organic brown sugar. Feed once a month if not using.
8. Enjoy.