Mother of Vinegar

• Alcohol has already undergone transformation, being absorbed by bacteria as original food particles and released as a type of waste. This type of waste, however, can serve as food for another type of common bacteria, known as acetobacters. These acetobacters eat the alcohol and turn it into acetic acid, which forms the most important part of the vinegar along with the original sugar particles still left. As the bacteria eat away at the alcohol, they form what is known as mother of vinegar, a mass of bacteria and starchy substances that is used as a catalyst for making more vinegar.

Submerged Fermentation

• Submerged fermentation is the fast, industrial method of producing a lot of vinegar at once for commercial use. This method is used in factories that have large equipment components including an acetator tank and a heating system to control the temperature of the vinegar being created. It takes one or two days to create vinegar using this method.

Process

• In submerged fermentation, a quantity of mother of vinegar is used as a catalyst and introduced into a large base in metal tanks known as acetators. These tanks are equipped with a variety of systems that keep the mixture constantly turning, introducing air into the mixture to provide enough oxygen to keep the bacteria working. The mixture is kept at about 80 degrees F to speed up the process.

Differences

• When a batch of vinegar is made using submerged fermentation, all the alcohol in the base formula is turned into acid, whereas more traditional, slower methods tend to leave a certain amount of alcohol in the vinegar. This means that the submerged fermentation process produces a sharper tasting vinegar.

Types of Vinegar

• Vinegars can be made out of many different substances, but the most common are white and wine vinegars. White vinegars are made with a combination of ethanol and water that creates an alcohol concentration of approximately 18 percent. Wine vinegars are made from grapes, and the process can begin either with grape juice or with a wine, which has already gone through the first stage of fermentation.