Apple Cider Vinegar from Crabapples
Learn how to make homemade apple cider vinegar from crabapples.
Yield: 8 cups vinegar
Equipment
- 1 gallon plastic pail
- wood Cutting board
- large kitchen knife
- fermenting crock or jar with weights and cloth cover
- large bowl
- 1 cotton cloth for filtering
- coffee filter or paper towel
- string or rubber bands
Instructions
- Harvest your crab apples into a plastic bucket until you have enough for the amount of vinegar you want to make.
- Using the cutting board, roughly chop crabapples in half to release juices faster.
- Dump apples into your fermenting container, leaving 2-4 inches of open space at the top.
- Place weights on the apples and cover with chlorine-free water until apples are submerged by an inch or two.
- Cover apples with a cloth cover and fasten down with a string or rubber band to keep fruit flies out. Using a jar? You can pop an actual lid into place and keep it in the refrigerator during the infusion process!
- After apples have infused in the water for 7-10 days, test to see if the liquid is sweet. If so, move on to the next step.
- Line a large bowl with a cotton cloth and place it in your kitchen sink.
- Pour the apples and water into the bowl.
- Knot the 4 corners of your cloth together and lift the apples, letting juices drip through into the bowl below.
- Discard the apples and pour the liquid back into your crock, jar or fermenting container of choice.
- Cover the mouth with a breathable cloth cover and fast it down with string or a rubber band to keep fruit flies out.
- Let the juice ferment at the back of your kitchen counter for 4-6 weeks.
- When it starts to smell sharp and vinegar-like, taste test it.
- If it taste sharp like vinegar, pour some into a small jar and fasten a canning lid and band down on the jar.
- Let it sit at the back of your kitchen counter for 2-3 days.
- Break the seal on your little jar and if there is no release of carbon dioxide (meaning there's no puff of air escaping), your vinegar is finished and ready to be bottled.
- Store vinegar in a food-grade container with a non corrosive lid (I recommend using corks, glass or plastic lids).
- Keep it in a dark place on a kitchen or pantry shelf and use within a years time.
Notes
If you decide to make vinegar in a large crock (as I sometimes do in my 5 gallon stoneware crock), the fermenting process will take significantly longer than this recipe says. Be aware of this and triple or even quadruple the amount of time you let it sit and ferment.
