Teach Me How to Make Vinegar!! (Please)

[BeckyBird]

Hi! I have several pounds of ripe organic pears, and I want to make vinegar with them. Does anybody here have step by step instructions on how to do this? Or, could you point me to a website?
I'm interested in making raw vinegar, but all the online instructions say that I should pasteurize it. I've used Bragg's, and it says "raw" on the bottle. Confusing! If I do make vinegar, do I have to pasteurize it?

Thanks!

[DesertFlower]

[kl5]

I have only made vinegar from apples, but I'm sure the process would be the same with pears. You want to start with juice from the pears--we get it straight from the cider press, but you could probably also just juice them in a juicer. As long as they are not sprayed, there is no need to wash them, as you want the ambient yeasts on their skins to start you off. Basically, you want to make hard cider by letting the juice ferment in a bottle with an airlock (pour juice in bottle, cap with airlock--add nothing!). Once you have your hard cider (the airlock will stop bubbling), you can add a mother and make vinegar. You can use the cloudy part from the bottom of a bottle of Bragg's or any unfiltered and unpasteurized cider vinegar you get at a health food store (along with about a cup of the vinegar as well for each gallon of cider). You can put it in another bottle with an airlock or just put some cheesecloth (or even a piece of paper towel) over the mouth with a rubber band. Then, wait. Sniff and taste every once in a while, but it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, depending on the temperature. If you do a few jugs (I reuse half and gallon beer growlers), you will get a nice strong mother in each and you can just keep adding new cider to the jugs with the mothers once they get low.

Oh, and you definitely don't need to pasteurize it.
Good luck and have fun!

[BeckyBird]

Thank you SO much! I am going to do this today We even have a jug with an airlock (we made wine a few years ago) so we're good to go. And I'm glad to hear I don't need to pasteurize it.
Thanks!

[gardengrrrl]

here's what I got from a post on No Impact Man...I will have a bunch of pear cores after pie making this week so I'll be trying this (waste not, etc):

"How do you make fruit scrap vinegar?
Great book: Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. Get your scraps of fruit—apple cores, dregs of berries (though no berries for us cause they’re not in season), whatever—and chop up coarsely. Dissolve a quarter cup of honey (recipe calls for sugar but I can’t get it locally) in one quart water. Throw the scraps in and cover with a cloth. Let ferment for two or three weeks, stirring occasionally. Adds great flavor to—you guessed it—cabbage."

Only thing, as with alot of wild ferments I wouldn't reccomend for those who are preggers...

[star792]

ok, starting the fruit scraps one today. this will be my first time trying vinegar. i was making apple butter and had a TON of scraps and thought of this thread that i had just read.