When I first stepped into the world of making my own vinegar, information and tutorials were scarce. It’s an old skill, one that very few of us understand or practice in our modern homes.
Truth be told, if it wasn’t for several vintage cookbooks I sourced at my local library, I wouldn’t be making or teaching other people how to ferment fruit (or in this case, grapes) into vinegar!
That’s what I’m here for today. In this tutorial, I’m going to teach you exactly what grape vinegar is and also, how to make it in your kitchen!
What Is Grape Vinegar?
Many people feel confused when it comes to grapes and the vinegar-making process. They often assume that wine vinegar and grape vinegar are one and the same. However, this just isn’t true. The creation process is different for each. And the flavor profile differs greatly!
Now I’m not a wine maker, but I did do my research and this is what I discovered.
Here’s How Wine Vinegar Is Made
Wine vinegar is made from finished, red or white wine. To transform wine into vinegar, all you have to do is expose it to airflow. That’s right! The air in your home carries a group of natural, airborne bacteria called acetobactors. Once they are caught on the surface of the wine, they go to work, transforming the alcohol content to acetic acid.
It can take months, but eventually (thanks to airborne bacteria), wine will be converted to a very acidic, tangy, wine vinegar!
This is How You Make Grape Vinegar
Grape vinegar is made from the juice of fresh pressed grapes. To make your own grape vinegar, all you need is juice, a food grade container for fermenting and a breathable, cloth cover that allows airflow to carry airborne organisms to the surface of your grape juice.
From there, the fermenting magic just happens! I dive deeper into the particulars below. All the home brewer needs to do is wait, check on the juice and troubleshoot if any issues arise. If all goes well, a fresh tasting, tangy grape vinegar is created in just a few month’s time!
How to Make Grape Vinegar
Now that you understand the difference between a wine vinegar and a fresh grape vinegar, let’s get into the particulars of making the latter!
Step 1: Harvest Your Grapes
When harvesting grapes for your vinegar making attempt, choose clusters that are fully ripe! These grapes will have the highest sugar content and make the most flavorful vinegar.
To the best of my knowledge, grape varieties don’t matter. As long as they have natural sugar, you shouldn’t have any problem fermenting their juice into vinegar.
Step 2: Extract Juice from Your Grapes
There are several ways you can extract juice from your grapes. If you have a steam juicer, it does an excellent job. You can use an electric juicer if you’re dealing with seedless grapes (don’t do it with seedy types; they’ll make crazy amounts of foam).
But I actually recommend a simpler method.
Line a large kitchen bowl with a flour sack tea towel. After rinsing your grapes under running water, remove them from their stems. Don’t worry if you crush the fruit as you handle it, or if you get some small stems in the mix. It really won’t affect anything!
Once you’ve run out of grapes or filled the bowl 2/3 of the way, it’s time to break up your fruit. You can use clean hands or use an old school potato masher.
It can be a sloppy task, but once you’ve turned all the grapes into a juicy, pulpy mess, it’s time to collect the juice! Do this by knotting the 4 corners of your cloth together.
Hang the bundle where grape juice can drip into the bowl below. And when the dripping stops? You’ll have a raw grape juice, ready for fermenting!
Step 3: Place Your Juice In a Fermenting Container
Because your grape juice will eventually turn into an acidic product, it’s important that you use a food grade container for the fermenting process. I like to use wide mouth glass jars and also, small Ohio stoneware crocks.
Pour your grape juice into a food safe container. And instead of putting a lid in place, cover the mouth with a cloth, paper towel or coffee filter. Be sure to fasten it down with a rubber band or tightly tied string. This will allow airborne organism to reach the surface of the juice, all the while keeping dirt and pesky fruit flies away from your juice!
It will also allow your ferment to release carbon dioxide in the first phase of fermentation (see step 4).
Step 4: Leave It to Work In Proper Temperatures
Leave your juice to sit in a room that is no cooler than 60F (16C) and no hotter than 80F (26C). The airborne organisms responsible for converting your juice to vinegar are sensitive to temperatures.
If they are too cold, they won’t go into action. And if they are too hot? The wrong organisms will take over and spoil the batch. Should your home be too warm for fermenting during the hot summer months, extract the juice, freeze it and ferment at a later date, after outdoor temperatures have cooled down.
Step 5: The Fermenting Phases
As your grape juice sits, it will go through two phases of fermentation. The first is a result of natural, airborne yeasts, while the second phase takes place due to airborne bacteria. Let me give you a breakdown of how it works!
Phase 1: The Alcohol Phase
In the first stage of fermentation, the air carries natural yeasts to the surface of your ferment. Once captured, they go into action and begin consuming the natural sugars found within your grape juice. As they feed, they convert the sugar to alcohol (the alcohol content is very low). While the yeasts do their work, they will also create and release carbon dioxide, which is another reason you want a breathable cover on your container!
The first phase of fermentation is evidenced by the tiny bubbles that appear on the walls of your fermenting container. They may even show on the surface of your liquid, and a layer of bubbly foam may appear. If it does, you’ll want to skim it off. Oh, don’t worry! It’s not harmful, but it may give mold opportunity to grow and that’s something you want to avoid!
After a few weeks, your fruit juice will omit a light, alcohol-like aroma. Natural yeasts will feed and thrive until they have consumed all the natural sugars in your grape juice. After this, they die off.
Phase 2: The Acetic Acid Phase
Several weeks after the bubbles disappear, you’ll notice a slightly sour aroma when you check your fruit juice. This is an indicator that airborne acetobactors (acetic acid bacteria) have arrived on the scene! This group of bacteria transforms the alcohol content to acetic acid, the thing that makes vinegar what it is!
Most of the time, this stage takes 3-5x longer than the first phase. Be patient!
Step 6: How to Tell When Your Grape Vinegar is Ready
There is no sure way to tell when your grape juice has been fully converted to vinegar. You can taste it. Smell it. Guess at whether or not it’s finished! But here’s the best test I’ve found.
When your vinegar smells and tastes sour, seal 1-2 C of the liquid in a glass jar or bottle. Make sure you have a tight fitting lid (or cork) and then let it sit at the back of your kitchen counter for 2-3 days.
Break the seal. Was there a release of carbon dioxide? If so, your vinegar is still working and isn’t ready to be sealed. Leave it for another 2 weeks, then test again.
No release? It’s ready to be bottle (or jarred) and used!
Step 7: How to Bottle Grape Vinegar
Because vinegar is an acidic substance, it is corrosive. Be sure to store it in a food grade container! Glass is ideal. I use canning jars, old whiskey jugs and wine bottles I got at a garage sale.
Also be aware that vinegar will slowly eat away at tin or metal lids. If used, you may end up with unwanted substances in your vinegar.
When using glass canning jars for vinegar storage, I recommend buying a set of wide mouth, white canning lids. They also come in standard mouth size.
And the jugs and bottles? Well, corks will do just fine!
Step 8: Tips for Storing Grape Vinegar in Your Home
Due to it’s acetic acid content, grape vinegar is a shelf stable product and needs no refrigeration. You can keep it in a kitchen cupboard. On the pantry shelf. In a cold room or root cellar.
If stored at room temperature, the flavor will start mellowing out after about 1 year. You’ll lose some of the snap and zing that comes with freshly made vinegar. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t use it in the home!
It should keep for up to 2 years. But trust me. If you like tangy flavors, you won’t be able to keep it around that long!
Where to Go For Further Help
Now I know there was a lot of information packed into this blog post! If you want a comprehensive guide on making fruit vinegars and also using them in the home, be sure to check out my eBook by clicking on this link here.
Of course, you can always leave me your questions and comments below. I’ll get back to you with the best answer I have on how to make grape vinegar!
Hello. I want to make different fruit vinegars like pomegranate and berries and I am curious to know if it is only apple cider vinegar that produces the mother?
Also, I was wondering if I need to make my other fruit vinegars with only water or only apple cider vinegar or only water mixed with the mother (from apple cider) and then submerg my berries in it?
I’m sorry if the question looks confusing.
I think I’ve got it, but let me know if I missed something! Yes, other fruit/ berry vinegars will often make a mother culture (though not always). You don’t need to add any vinegar or mother culture to your new fruit vinegar ferments. You can if you like, but everything should be just fine with just fruit or berries and water. Does that answer your questions?
My concord grape juice has been working away since about October 15, 2020. It went through the bubbling stage and I noticed lots of residue on the bottom so I filtered it again and put it back in the clean jar. It keeps developing a thin white substance on the top…not really mold, almost like a tiny powder. I tasted it and it is getting sour!
That’s great! The powder isn’t an issue and if things are beginning to taste sour, you’re on the right track! Congrats!
I notice more residue on the bottom. Should I filter it again or leave it alone?
It’s totally up to your personal preference! Residue won’t hurt anything. I usually leave it, but if you like, you can get a siphoning hose and lift the clear liquid off!
My vinegar has formed a mother/scoby, which is floating on the surface. Should I submerge it in the liquid, or leave it on top (it kind of forms a cap on the surface of the liquid). Thanks for the great tutorial! I used Concord grapes, which I think will make an awesome vinegar.
That’s great! You can sink it or just leave it. Doesn’t really matter! Congrats on a successful ferment!
I have lost track of how long my jar of juice has been in the cupboard. Regardless, it now has a healthy scoby on top. You don’t mention a scoby. Is that not a typical part of the process? Should I remove it and just keep going? I tasted it today and it is still pretty sour. thanks for your help!
That’s wonderful! It’s not abnormal for your vinegar to grow a mother culture, particularly when working with fruit juice that has a higher sugar content (which results in higher acetic acid levels). If you were lucky enough to grow one, keep it! So long as it remains healthy, it’s a good thing to have. 🙂
We used a blender to juice our grapes so the skin is now liquified as well. We put the entire liquid in a gallon jar and now, about 6 weeks later there is sediment on the bottom as well as on the top. There is mold on the top portion. We assume this is not working correctly due to not juicing correctly?????
In my book, I give you my favorite ways to juice grapes. Yes, pureeing fruit isn’t a good idea because it’s nearly impossible to separate particles from the juice. And they’ll forever be floating to the top (where things can mold). If the mold growth isn’t extreme yet, try skimming the top layer off and filter the remaining juice through a cotton cloth that has been folded 4-5x. Pour the juice into a clean jar and let it sit. If mold forms again, you should probably throw it out. Sorry it didn’t work out for you! Let me know if you have other questions along the way!
Autumn,
I have a glass mason jar of wild grape juice that I want to turn to vineagr for hot sauce. I have a paper towel held down with a rubber band on the top. Fruit flies have began hover and landing on the top. What should I do?
As long as they can’t get into it, you don’t need to worry about your juice. In my ebook, I outline ways to control fruit flies, but for now? Use the hose on your vacuum so suck them up every morning before they become too active. Hope that helps!
Hi! I am so excited to be trying this recipe for the first time. I have 2 questions for you. I juiced my grapes and the jar has been sitting for a week on my counter. Is that ok, or should it be somewhere dark? Also, it smells great and has lots of bubbles, but the top inch or so looks to have solids that have separated and the top is foamy. They are not brown, they are the same color purple as the rest of the jar. Should I skim this off or leave it? Thanks!
Hi Amy! You don’t need to put the juice in a dark place. I only recommend that once it’s finished and you’re putting it away for long term storage. I would recommend skimming any foam or solids out. Just so mold doesnt have a landing pad! Let me know if you have any more questions!
Hi there, l followed your recipe except that l have stirred it once daily for the first week. Is that ok?
Totally! How is it coming?
Could I do a balsamic type:(i.e. from a nonalcolic must) using my personal abundance of wild Wisconsin grapes?
nonalcoholic!
You know, I don’t have experience with balsamic vinegar, so I couldn’t say! All I know are fresh fruit vinegars.
I have Concord grapes and have already made jam. I am looking to make something this the rest. Are these grapes ones that can be used? My other question is. After making my jam. I know that some of the grapes have little worms in them. This was om first year getting grapes. So i have a lot to learn. Can i separate the grape skin from the flesh when using the old fashion way of extracting the juice from the Grapes? Thank you for your time
I’ve never used Concord grapes, but they should work as well as any other type of grape. I suppose you could pick thru and remove the skins from the flesh, but it really isn’t necessary. You’ll be straining out all the solids later on anyway! Let me know if you have more questions!
To people wondering if this grape or that grape will work… I put a bunch of grapes in an old picnic cooler with water to wash them… I never got around to taking them out… it turned into vinegar just fine.
Natural processes happen. Just stick your grape juice somewhere and leave it. It will do the rest. The reason to keep it unsealed is that the gases expelled need a place to go so the pressure doesn’t build up and explode your bottle… when everything is done, you can cap it, like the article says.
Any fruit will work.
So we don’t have to bother removing the skins anyway. OK.
Hi, thank you so much for posting this article! I decided to follow this recipe. Unfortunately, my grapes have been sitting in my fridge for a while and aren’t fresh. I didn’t want to throw them out so I thought I’d look into making vinegar instead. That’s when I found your article. I’ve juiced my grapes by steaming them in my instant pot and will be storing them away in the boiling room for a few months with the hopes that it will turn out okay. I’m worried though that it won’t turn out okay, since I didn’t use fresh grapes. Do you have any thoughts about this? Thanks again.
So I’ve only ever used fresh fruit for this recipe and usually, it’s been made from raw grapes. Occasionally I’ve used my steam juicer and that works well. I would *think* that your grape juice would still turn into vinegar, as long as it’s kept a room temperature! Good luck!
Don’t heat the grapes you are killing g the natural yeasts. You need them…esp. if you are keeping your project in an enclosed room.
Hello, we are in Australia and are growing a Shiraz vineyard and have been wondering what to do with them. Have been looking into doing a vinegar do you think these will be ok?
I’m not familiar with very many grape varieties, but in order to create traditional vinegar, you need sugars and liquid. If your grapes afford these two things, you’ll be able to create vinegar from them!
sure…easy don’t use spoiled wine use good wine and add vinegar “mother” for faster results the best vinegar I have made was from fresh French Corn as (syrah/shiraz)…very smooth and rich!