I have been led to believe that residual sugar in a wine that is being turned to vinegar may lead to off odors, and that it may be preferable to use dry mead. Can someone confirm (or refute) this?
and none of us here, at least as far as I know, is an expert vinegar maker
And I hope to God never to become one! LOL
(that would mean my meadmaking has gone horribly wrong)
I was also under the impression that the change to vinegar is usually concurrent with the alcoholic fermentation, not an inoculation of finished wine with acetobacter. The bacteria can only survive so much alcohol, so simultaneous production and consumption of the alcohol (the mother contains both yeast and bacteria) keeps the ABV low enough. That said, I'm sure there are many ways to make wine/mead/beer go to vinegar.
I'd be interested in making viniger, but my fear is doing it on purpose will lead to me doing it on accident.
Interesting. This is completely in line with all cases meads ending in -egar that I'm familiar with. It's always been low ABV meads, and they tended to have ended up that way right away, not after overexposure to oxygen.
Then here's a little blurb that may be of some help.I'd be interested in making viniger, but my fear is doing it on purpose will lead to me doing it on accident.