Mead vinegars?

[Consul]

I don't know if this should be in NewBees or not. Since I am one, it seemed the best place. ;D

I plan on starting my very first batch, a gallon of Ancient Orange, on Monday, since that's when I'll be able to go to the semi-local home brew store to get some gear. Please wish me well.

One thing I'm curious about, though, is mead vinegars. You see, I'm a major foodie and amateur chef in addition to being a didgeridoo player and general purpose Linux admin. Always on the prowl for new ingredients, the idea of making my own mead and mead vinegar for cooking is quite appetizing.

I know it must seem like sacrelige to sacrifice a successful mead in order to make a tangy tank of spoiled honey wine, but it seems to me that it would be a killer ingredient for salad dressings, marinades, and other creative consumables.

Has anyone here every made mead vinegar? How do you feel it turned out, if indeed you have?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Dmntd]

Hey Darren,

I make vinegar from semi-sweet, dry and malt mead (braggot), It turns out wonder. At tastings, the semi-sweet mead vinegar has been the most popular, followed by the malt. The stronger the honey flavor is in the mead, the more honey flavor the vinehar has.

I also have a love of fine food and creative cooking, play anything with strings (banjo, guitar, fiddle, bass... ), and run a SlackWare system using kernel I compiled.

Here's another thread on vinegar - http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=103&topic=1438.0 -

Happy mazing,

Anthony

 

[Consul]

I always feel a warmth to those kindred spirits who have compiled their own kernels.

It is definitely nice to know that mead vinegars are possible, and that others have followed that path. I think I'll reserve one of my first bottles of Joe's Ancient Orange for making a bottle of vinegar, to see how well it turns out.

I'm on the accellerated program. ;D

Thank you for the link. I'll definitely start reading it straight away.

 

[palecricket1]

oo ancient orange vinegar! that should be interesting. I know blood orange vinegar is very tasty, but i've never had one that was spiced before.

 

[CheshireCat]

I've a few stories of unwilling mead vinegar makers... :

 

[Dmntd]

palecricket,

You've never had spiced vinegar?

Making herb & spice vinegar is simple. Drop the pepper corn's, chili's, garlic clove's, cinnamon stick or what ever in the bottle of vinegar, the longer it sits the stronger the flavor. I have a cinnamon/vannila vinegar that's great in fruit salad.

Anthony

 

[JamesP]

Try and keep your vinegar and vinegar mother away from your mead and meadery.

It reduces unwanted infection of your mead from air-borne aceto-bacter aceti micro-organisms.

 

[Consul]

Umm, okay. I'll keep one on one side of the kitchen, and the other on the other side... :-[

Well, I do have some space in the basement. It's cooler, so I think maybe the vinegar making will happen there.

Thanks all for the help.

 

[Dmntd]

Hey Consul,

Vinegar fermentation is best in a warmer place. Traditionally crock, barrel, whatever, is placed in the warmest part of the kitchen.

I make must and vinegar in the kitchen.

The safest way for me to do this, is by never using equipment used for vinegar to make must, keeping brewing and vinegar equipment apart, not handling vinegar before making must or bottling mead. I also sanitize counter tops, sinks and faucet's with a 25 ppm iodophor solution before making must.

Knock on wood, I have yet to have a mishap.

Anthony

 

[palecricket1]

You've never had spiced vinegar?

Making herb & spice vinegar is simple. Drop the pepper corn's, chili's, garlic clove's, cinnamon stick or what ever in the bottle of vinegar, the longer it sits the stronger the flavor. I have a cinnamon/vannila vinegar that's great in fruit salad.

Not to get too off topic but no, I've actually never had (or even considered) spiced vinegar before, though in retrospect it seems a pretty obvious thing to do since salad dressing is really just spiced vinegar and oil. mead-dijon... yummy.

 

[Brewbear]

Palecricket - Dude, the last mead event we had at the Riverside B3 store Brian Kettering had a raspberry vinegar and I got to sample it. In one word *awsome*, and let me tell you, it was darn good too ;D I actually PM'd him and he was kind enough to e-mail me the hand-out he gives in his classes. I have to make some now, my sis dables in cooking and she'll have a cow when she'll try this stuff. Last year I *beat * her recipe for the oven roasted turkey with my tex-mex spiced fried turkey ;D

Ted

 

[palecricket1]

my mouth is watering! Actually there's a funny story about raspberry vinegar. I left a bottle of raspberry-cranberry juice out and a few days later...