Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe

I’ve recently become a complete convert to apple cider vinegar, and am loving using it for making herbal vinegars, vinaigrettes and of course for fire cider. The best apple cider vinegar has the ‘mother’ retained in it so that you can benefit from all the healthy probiotics. I was so excited to discover that apple cider vinegar is simple to make at home and a great zero-waste solution as well.

Homemade apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a great use for windfall apples if you have a tree in your garden. It is also a great way to use all your apple scraps, peels and cores from cooking or eating – just collect them together in a bag in your freezer until you have enough to make a batch of ACV.

You can make a batch of any size you like really provided you have a suitable container. I use a 1L preserving jar, which makes about 500ml ACV, and I often have another jar on the go at a different stage in the process as well.

For my first batch I purchased a vinegar kit from Korukai Farm that included the jar, a fermenting weight and some ACV ‘mother’ (which is a bit like a mini-SCOBY for those of you who have made Kombucha).

Fill your jar to roughly halfway with apple scraps. Place a piece of the mother on top of the apple scraps and then hold it all down with a glass fermenting weight. If you don’t have a mother you could add some raw ACV to inoculate it.

Then fill the jar with lukewarm water and dissolved sugar at a ratio of 1 tbsp sugar to 1 cup (250ml) water. For my 1L jar it is roughly 500-750ml water and 2-3 tbsp sugar. Note that it is not as simple as half of your container because there will be air gaps around the apple scraps that the water will fill – measure the water you are adding and add the appropriate amount of sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved.

Make sure that all the apple pieces stay submerged and do not float to the top. Remove any that do otherwise they may attract unwanted microorganisms/mould and spoil your ACV.

Cover your container with a piece of breathable fabric (make sure it is a tight enough weave that it doesn’t let fruit flies in) and secure in place.

Let your jar sit at room temperature (around 22C) for 4-6 weeks. Check regularly to make sure no pieces have floated up to the top. Some say to keep it in the dark.

This is when the magic of fermentation happens: the beneficial bacteria start to feed on the sugar, first converting the sugar into alcohol and then over time converting the alcohol into acetic acid or vinegar. The apples will turn brown and the liquid will turn cloudy, small bubbles should form and you will start to smell the cider-y fermenting aroma. A layer of whitish sediment may also form and you may start to see a ‘SCOBY’ forming on the surface.

After 4-6 weeks, remove the mother and put it into a glass jar. Cover the mother with ACV and store it in the fridge. Then strain off the apple pieces from the liquid by pouring it through a fine-mesh strainer into a large jug or bowl. Compost the apples (and any unwanted SCOBY).

Return the liquid to a clean jar and cover it again in the same way as you did earlier. Then leave it for another 4-6 weeks or more to allow the ferment to continue producing acetic acid leading to your final finished vinegar. You will start to smell the vinegar-y smell that confirms you are getting what you expected. Taste test the ACV and leave it for longer as required or desired.

Finished ACV should have a pH of 2-3; you can test it with simple pH test strips.

Transfer the ACV to a bottle – and you are done!