Taylor-MadeAK

The next step in the natural evolution of any alcoholic beverage, if left to its own devices, is vinegar. I happen to be a big fan of malt vinegar, but every time I've tried to grow a mother from scratch I've had no success. Personally, I believe the hops interfere, but I've also been told that hops have no effect on acetobacter. Either way, I haven't attempted it in probably 6 years or so, but today I decided to give it another try.

Problem: no unhopped beer handy. I'm also too darn cheap to go out and spend $12+ on a vinegar mother, though I may pick up some unpasteurized cider vinegar later tonight.

Solution: use some sake to make rice vinegar!

Hardware: one wide-mouth nonreactive vessel, enough cheesecloth to completely cover the mouth of said vessel, and a means of securing the cheesecloth to it so that nothing can get under its edge.

Sacrificed to the cause (aka Software): the remains of 3 bottles of homebrewed sake, which haven't been drunk because I bottled them too early and they have a little bit of loose sediment in the bottom. Total amount came to exactly 24 fluid ounces.

I put this jar in my open kitchen window for a few hours on a breezy day in hopes that I could encourage some acetobacter into colonizing it, then moved it to the relatively warm and dark space on top of my kitchen pots & pans rack. There it will stay undisturbed except for periodic yearning looks from the household brewer (that would be me). This post will be updated as the experiment progresses.